Black Swallowtail

Of course, I fell in love with his beauty.  There he was, poised on a black-eyed Susan which is about to bloom.  As if he were waiting.

Look at that pattern!  How stunning are the colors against the black!  Oh, what a handsome specimen!

And then I looked him up.  First of all, he has many aliases.  Parsnip swallowtail, parsley swallowtail, celeryworm, caraway worm.  How can you possibly trust a man with so many names?

You can't.  He's a pest.  Or at least his caterpillar version is. 

Yep.  I've seen that dude on my parsley.  (Hence, the name parsley swallowtail. Duh.)  Certainly compelling, but a pest nonetheless.

Jenna had identified the butterfly for me, so I showed her the picture of the caterpillar and told her I'd seen it on my parsley.  She said I could move the caterpillars to another host plant (which sounds very much like work to me), so I looked up the swallowtail's host plants.  Most of them were foreign to me, at least by their names, except one:  Queen Anne's Lace.  I think Queen Anne's Lace might have been one of the first flowers I was ever able to identify in my childhood.  So I know it well.

I don't know.  Maybe when I spot that glorious caterpillar on my parsley, I will indeed look for some Queen Anne's Lace to move him to.  Or maybe not.  Maybe I'll just squish him.  (You don't think I can?  Don't you remember the stinkbug murder?)  Either way, today I am in love with a beautiful Eastern Black Swallowtail who graciously allowed me to photograph his beauty for all of us to admire.