Visiting

Remember these lovely caterpillars? This is the beautiful butterfly they turn into. This one was visiting the parsley laying more eggs...more caterpillars, more butterflies!

Still Beauty

 

I found this beauty lying on the sidewalk. You can tell it had been through some stuff (missing area on its wing). I think it is a Western swallowtail butterfly, but it seems a bit small... So beautiful, even when not alive.

Pretty

 

Behold the swallowtail butterfly caterpillar: those colors! The blue is amazing... There have been three of them munching my parsley plants down to a nub (it's OK, I'll share...). 

I'm sure some will beg to differ about the attractiveness of a caterpillar, but I think these are really quite pretty.