A student hold a Two-tailed Swallowtail just after coming out of its cocoon. (March 9, 2015)
Just outside the Sabino Canyon Visitors Center, A Junior Naturalist (7th grader) showed a Two-tailed Swallowtail with wings still curved, just having emerged from her cocoon. This image represents the last stage of a caterpillar morphing into a butterfly, which began with a very hungry caterpillar hatching from an egg. The caterpillar will spend this phase of its life stuffing itself with leaves, growing plumper and longer through a series of molts in which it sheds its skin. Then, one day the caterpillar stops eating, suspends itself upside down from a twig or leaf and spins itself a silky cocoon where the caterpillar digests itself, eventually emerging as a butterfly. Cool!!
kenne
Images by kenne
