These guys are the reason for fennel in my garden. It's not that I don't like fennel--it's a very beautiful plant, especially this bronzy variety, which is now some four or five years old, very healthy and wise. And wealthy, at least just now, in swallowtail caterpillars. I'm just not a fan of fennel's taste--a little bit goes a long way, as far as I'm concerned.
Don't tell that to the caterpillars, though. They find it extraordinarily tasty and nutritious. If past performance is any guide, in a day or two the eight caterpillars I counted on this plant will have it chewed down to mostly bare stalks. (Okay by me, guys.) Unfortunately, that doesn't factor in the wasps, who love to snack on the caterpillars. While I was taking photos, I was fending them off, although they were much less interested in me than in these tasty striped morsels. What we have here is a good example of the food chain in operation: the caterpillars chowing down on the fennel, the wasps nibbling on the caterpillars (truly--they seem to take them, live, a bite at a time), the swallows and bluebirds that feed on the wasps. I'm hoping, though, that a few of these stripy fellows will survive to become butterflies, rather than lunch for wasps.
I tried to write today, but not very successfully. The conference is coming up, and there are a million trillion details. But Paula (my co-chair) and I have lots of help, and we'll get it all done. We have to, don't we? It's just two weeks away.
Reading note. And what's a butterfly? At best/He's but a caterpillar drest.--John Gay, "The Butterfly and the Snail"