Mystery solved!

(click pics to enlarge - caterpillar won't, though!)

Last week I blogged about the alien looking chrysallis 'bodies' all over the deck and house (and just about any vertical surface!) Don't know why I never took a picture of the caterpillar that made them, so here is one from a university's entomology site:

Finally, this past weekend I got to see one of the progenies from said Chrysallis Fest going on! Still have yet to catch it actually emerging from it's pod, but did catch this one shortly thereafter. Note the recently evacuated chrysallis in the upper right, with the winged wonder drying out and trying out its new wings...

Say hello to the Pipestem Swallowtail butterfly. What had been a quandry of similar-looking chrysallis forms, to even similar butterfly colorations....the chips finally fell out cleanly. In reading about the particulars of Battus philenor, the Pipestem's formal classification, it was noted how similar it looks to the Eastern Black Swallowtail butterfly....with one catch: the caterpillars are oh-so different.

These caterpillars are black with little paired red dots/protrusions, contrasted to the 'mimicking' green/black caterpillar of the Eastern Black Swallowtail.

Not that it's a big deal one way or the other...just an example of fun that I have discovering something new. I love nature and have seen a lot of it...but there are myriad details I don't fully grasp, and here is one more piece of my puzzle 'solved'. Plenty of other species to discover fully, too.

Like this one...

This little thing looks a miniscule piece of white lint as it 'flies' around...tee-tiny speck, it is, and this is the only 'clear' shot I got of it before it flew on it's way. Alas, now another to go 'discover' and read about...!

May your day be one of discovery as well!