Rancho Mariposa

Yes, our Butterfly Ranch is open for business in 2012. We started in April with Brigitte nurturing our first almost imperceptibly tiny dill plants. We added another purchased plant later. No sooner did we have these out of doors than we observed one Black Swallowtail visiting them one morning—hovering, flying away, hovering some more, and this for about twenty minutes. Then, about a week ago, Brigitte discovered the first tiny caterpillar on the purchased dill; it was still black in coloration with a single yellow marker in the middle.  The day before yesterday she saw another on the home-grown plants as well—quite a distance from the first, and yesterday, in the same location, a third. Herewith the first and the other two:

Click to enlarge, Esc to return.

The Black Swallowtails are obviously fond of this location or the dill—although we’ve seen several other species as well. But the others just come to visit, not to deposit progeny.