Swallowtail Cycle Encore

The top image is the eggs!! The exclamation points indicate that this is the first time I’ve ever seen any! I noticed a butterfly lingering on the plant a few days ago, and I guess this is the result. Those little round things are tiny, smaller than the head on a ceramic pin.
Bottom left is an early instar, probably the first stage of this amazing process. It’s about 1/4 inch long, just a thin black line on the leaf until you get close enough to see feet and spines and the whole wonderful creature! So far I see two of them. They will become caterpillars, but I don’t know how long it takes. 
Bottom right is a full-on caterpillar, who has grown to maybe an inch already as it eats its way through the parsley. It was cold and rainy this morning, and everyone seems to have survived nicely. 
So there are 2 eggs, 2 instars and 1 caterpillar—three stages of development on one plant. There will be more pictures of this transformation. I am completely enchanted by  each stage of the process.

I’m frustrated that the images aren’t very sharp, but that’s all I can do without a tripod. Another excuse is that it’s been windy. Oh, and I had to zoom and crop and all those things that degrade an image. But you get the drift, I hope, and maybe can share in my great delight at finding this life bursting out in the garden.


The Extra is to give a better sense of scale for the instar.