Parsley caterpillar
My neighbor was away for a few days and asked me to water her flowers and her very small vegetable garden. As incentive, she said I could harvest any ripe tomatoes and parsley that I wanted.That's when I got to know this fellow and twenty of his mates, commonly called parsley caterpillars. During my photo shoot, I nicknamed this especially fat and hungry one, Heimlich, in a nod to "A Bug's Life".
In a few weeks, I'll keep a lookout for quite a few black swallowtail butterflies flitting around the neighborhood.
9 comments:
I love these very nice closeups of this caterpillar. The view of the little legs is especially nice. Btw is the parsley edible this late in season? Just curiosity on my part as I think of it as an early spring crop. If it is, then I'll be planting this flat leaf type!
A lovely caterpillar. Could also be called a Tiger Caterpillar. Makes him sound a bit more macho.
Beautiful - so pristine - and judging by some of my plants very very HUNGRY
About parsley - flat-leaved variety, if you want to have some to cut most of the year round, just succession sow it -So much of it goes to seed round now and is stalky and tough. I have some in my notorious veg patch - I sowed a couple of weeks ago and it's fine for cutting now. Whereas the stuff that comes up in my flower pots every year - (still from the original French seeds I brought with me from Lebanon) - is all enormous and in seed at the moment - I also find it grows much more successfully from seed directly off the plant and shaken about on the area - planting carefully from packet seed doesn't seem to do it so well. Mine prefers to be in plant pots for some reason.
Mediterranean thyme also prefers pots - mine survives canadian winters!
I love these photos... I am really need to read up on my camera. LOL Now I want to find some small bug. :)
Hm, I'm not sure if the parsley is edible or not. But I'll let you know because I thought I would harvest some and make some tabouleh. It looks fine...?
Eleanor(Bev?), I like the nickname Tiger Caterpillar. He scared me just a bit and does deserve a rather more macho name.
Frances, it's interesting that these caterpillars were concentrating mostly on the flower/seed heads of the parsley.
Rima, what I would give for some seeds of that thyme. Does it make seeds?
Windy, reading the manual is good, but you could also just look if you have a macro icon on your settings. My last two cameras it was a flower symbol. I shoot macros of bugs sometimes just so I can see them up close in the resulting picture.
Life magnified, magnificent in its wonder... The messages I get from your nature close-ups are humbling to those of us who sometimes forget to stop and see the inherent beauty and harmony in this world...
I've never been that wussy when it comes to insects... but this guy really gives me the jeebies. He's all right up in your face....*shudder*
LOVELY photo... enough to give me prickles on my back.
That is the cutest caterpillar I have ever seen. I will have to be sure to show Katlynn that photo, or did you guys already look at it?
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