Black Swallowtail Caterpillars

Papilio polyxenes: The Black Swallowtail
The Black Swallowtail looks a lot like the monarch caterpillar. Experts believe that the Black Swallowtail mimics the monarch so birds and other predators might leave it alone. The monarch is actually toxic to eat because of the milkweed plant that it consumes. The Black Swallowtail eats Parsley, carrots and dill. The caterpillars in the video are devouring a parsley plant.
Have you ever wondered how much a caterpillar can actually eat? This video captures how much these caterpillars eat and how big they grow.
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[@petertrout8140]

We had something similar this year on a fennel plant; where did they all go???? Started off with 10 caterpillars, and ended up with one? Just disappeared.

[@maralonent6257]

If your fennel plant got as decimated as the one in this video, they probably went looking for another food source to avoid starving. Otherwise probably eaten by birds, lizards, other insects or died of disease or parasites.

[@petertrout8140]

@@maralonent6257 there was plenty of food, but they all died of except for one? We ended up buying more fennel from a grocery store and planted it, as we could not find any live plants at any local nursery. We suspect that it had been sprayed with something?

[@adrianak5205]

Where did u find them? Did they come naturally or did u get them somewhere ?

[@petertrout8140]

We got the new fennel from a grocery store, as we could not find any more live plants, this is what I think killed most of them off.