In case anyone is interested, the caterpillar in the foreground of the second picture in the first post WAS preparing to pupate. Here it is now. As you can see, the new pupa is mostly green, while the underside is yellow. I assume it will eventually all turn brown. The picture clearly shows the strand holding it to the stem of the parsley, and some of the caterpillar shape is visible inside. There is another caterpillar that is ready for pupation. It also has "gone still" and while the head remains attached to the stem as though it's holding on with its mouth, the portion of its body just below the head is curved outward, with the rest of its body tapering closer to the stem to where the bottom is still attached. I don't see any sign of the strand that will attach the upper part of its body to the stem, but maybe it hasn't done that yet. The pupation beyond this point is pretty rapid -- the one that's a pupa now took only one day from appearing like a large curved caterpillar "statue" and the pupa. The younger ones are still feeding and grasp the stems and leaves with all their feet, so they lie flat and move around. They can live for more than six months in the pupal stage, to emerge in the Spring. The parsley it's attached to will die with winter freezes, so I'll have to find a protected spot outside for this one and the other ones when they pupate.

Just found this forum - someone recommended from the Cottage Gardening forum. Love your pic of the caterpillar. My husband and I have been composting for about 15 years. When the snow melts, I'll take some pics. Sue~

I'm not having much luck with the BST's this year. Last year was my first year for them and at the end of summer I had 12 at one time, all did great and turned into beautiful butterflies. So far this year I found 4 1st instar ones. Everything seemed to be doing okay until they were 5th instar. One of them was lying on the bottom of the tank and his head was sort of black in color. He didn't seem to be doing too good, so I euthanized him. Then the 1st one to pupate couldn't seem to pick a good spot and ended up stuck on the bottom of the tank with his "webbing." I tried to carefully help him on to a stick, but something didn't go right when turning to a chrysalis and he was "leaking" something, so that was the end of him as well :( The last 2 are now Chrysalis and all appears well with them. Whew! These guys are giving me a run for the money this year. I hope I get another batch and all goes better with them. Sherry, last year I had one that was a lot darker, but he wasn't eating or doing too much. I finally figured out he was so dark because his old skin was stuck! I gave it a bit of a nudge, and that did the trick for him.

I had a large pot of parsley on a picnic bench in the backyard since last year that didn't see a single BST caterpillar until it was well into the flowering stage, wouldn't you know. I was starting to think it wasn't going to happen, so I was a bit surprised to come outside one day and find caterpillars on it. I wound up getting more parsley and bringing two of them inside (I had never raised any inside before and didn't want to overdo it). Currently one of the two is in fourth instar (I think...I'm a little iffy on instars), and the bigger one has already assumed the J-position and will be pupating soon. The five outside seem to have lucked out with the predators so far. Well, down to four now...the biggest one seems to have finally wandered off somewhere. This post was edited by alex928 on Sun, Jul 6, 14 at 11:20