Curly Parsley (Petroselinum crispum)

Curly Parsley
Petroselinum crispum

Closeup of a black swallowtail caterpillar starting to munch on curly parsley. The plant will be eaten very quickly. This caterpillar is also called a parsley worm.

Excellent photo htop. It looks like I can almost reach out & touch it. Also like your photo taken on June 14th with the 6 cats.

htop,
I have this superb photo as wallpaper now-looks as if the ' p.worm' is about to munch up all the icons! BTW,I hope this is ok,using your photo-let me know if it isnt.

broots, thanks. I had a great time taking photos of these guys. I never knew that they could munch down a plant so fast. They left the scene as soon as all of the parsley leaves were gone, but I could not locate them. I hope the birds or neighborhood cats (the meowing kind) did not eat them. The parsley has been sprouting new leaves now. I hope I am able to eat some myself. The cats (the butterfly kind) always seem to get there before me. :o)

sorgina, I am delighted you are using the photo as a wallpaper and am happy that you liked the photo. It is wonderful that we can share our plants and critters all over the world. Spain is one place I would love to be able to visit. I wonder if after your icons are eaten up they will grow back like the curly parsley has. :o)

This'cat' is a great favorite with my two children,who I share (fight for?) the computer with. There are some wonderful photos on DG-it's a great way to share our love of plants and creatures.
PS If you do ever make it to Spain,you're very welcome to visit-we live in the Basque Country,between Spain,France and the Pyrenees.

I'm sure you are instilling the love of nature in your children's hearts ... I wish everyone would because it would be a kinder, more gentle world. If I ever am able to travel there, I will surely let you know. Thanks for the invitation to visit.You live in a wonderful region of the world. Yes, the photos at DG is what attracted me to the site when I first found it and then the wealth of information from so many people is so fabulous. It is such fun to see and learn about plants that grow all over the world and to be able to make new gardening friends.

Yeah htop and all, I found these Eastern Black Swallowtail Cats on my parsley too.. and one turned and I got a shot of her when she flew back around to lay eggs. Not a great shot, but i could only snap one and she flew off. Now the kids and I watch them all summer through several generations of butterflies. You are welcome to see my gallery too, I put a few in there..look for the one of the egg on the parsley.

http://pg.photos.yahoo.com/ph/deborahsongs/my_photos

Deb

Deb, great photo ... so are the other ones of the caterpillars and swallowtails. I really enjoyed looking at your other photos too. Thanks for sharing them.

Yes they are Htop, this catarpillar is Eastern Black Swallowtail.. they love parsley. If you plant it, they will come. (lol) Seems, no matter how small your parsley patch is, they will find it if the ants, wasps, or spiders don't eat their eggs or larve first. That's why so few actually make it to maturity unless they are in a protected sanctuary.

God bless!

Deb

Deb, I only have one small container of parsley and you are right. They must have parsley radar because it has been eaten down twice now. I was trying to locate them and move them to a safe place plus provide them with plenty of parsely, but I couldn't find them. I hope they didn't meet their demise.

Htop ~I took this pic today of an EBS Catarpillar at about one week old. He is what to look for, as they are brown with a small blue band and don't look much like they do before crysalis. The colors on the larve ar more like the Butterfly than the full grown catarpillar, which is green, black and yellow. Funny huh?

Deb

Deb, thanks for the great photo. They sure look different when they are young. I will be on the lookout to see if I have some young ones on my plants. My parsley jhas receovered from being munched down so it is about time to have some more cats coming for dinner.

Hey there htop!
I was just going through old posts by my old nic, deborahsongs..
I wanted to go by 'debnes' but it seems that it was already taken or something. Plus I decided to subscribe to DG. I have really enjoyed the butterflies this year, and now there is a great forum for hummers and butterflies, Perfect!
~Debnes

Good to hear from you and know your new name. It is great that you have become a subscriber. I hadn't checked out the hummers and butterfly forum yet. This year I have had more butterflies in my yard than I have had in years and years. So far, none of the cats have eaten my parsley ... I am kinda disappointed! I have not seen very many black swallowtails which is unusual. Wow, it is only going to be 90 degrees today. It will sure feel nice. I am doing rain dances now. My neighborhood has not received any real rain (only some sprinkles 2 times) since January. I have been having to water all of my trees this past week.

Oh yeah,, a cold front 90* burrrrr, lol. Nice break from the tripple digits for sure! I came up to Oklahoma to visit my neice here and was hoping it would stay cooler or RAIN RAIN RAIN...still not a lot yet though, maybe tomorrow though. I'm praying I wont come back to a bunch of droopyheaded plants.. I had some rather delicate ones this year, as usual COLEUS!!, and of course Morning Glories and Moonvines, Candletrees (2) (still waiting for them to bloom). Several different Jasmines.. Elephant Ears, >>Columbine and Millionbells died, Balloon flower couldnt take the heat, ferns kinda fried, Hibiscus' all doing great!! (I have about 3 different Hib's)~Passionvines got completely devoured by Gulf Frits, and is now growing back....I think I will make some cuttings of the PV now with all the new growth coming back.. My parsley and herb beds of about 15 different kinds did alright, Next year I am definatly going to plant lots of Parsley. Had a few BST visits this year and about a dozen altogether.

Here one on my Zennias that posed for me fairly well>

Finally received some rain this week ... what a blessing. I am going to Seattle to attend my daughters wedding and am sure glad that the temperatures have cooled some and that the fall rains have arrived. Hopefully, during the week that we are gone, the temps will npt soar back to the upper 90s and that it will rain again. I will have my fingers crossed. My million bells didn't make it through the heat either. The moonvines suffered in the heat and the blooms never fully opened because the night time temps were so high. The angel trumpets bloomed, but the blooms did not fully open. Now that the night time temps have lowered I hope the next blooms that are being produced quite quickly will fully open. I have never taken cuttings from a passion vine. I hope yours root well for you. I sure wish I had room in my yard for a candlestrick tree. The blooms are so beautiful. Your photo is really great. Thanks for sharing it.