This is the first Swallowtail butterfly to hatch in my new butterfly garden. It started with a Swallowtail butterfly laying her eggs on my dill. 10 caterpillars ate their way through all of my dill and then all of my parsley. The plants are in a planter on my deck which shielded them somewhat from predators. I found 3 that crawled off and prepared to make their chrysalis on the posts of my deck. Two were successful. My first butterfly was still in the chrysalis this morning. When I checked again it had emerged. I missed the actual emergence and will try to capture that with the second which is not ready today. The butterfly spent a couple of hours waiting for the wings to harden. It then expelled one last bit of water and flew off.

My first Swallowtail:


The empty chrysalis:


The night before it emerged (look close and see the head and spots):


The new chrysalis (the skin that it just shed is the clump at the bottom):


One of the 10 before the dill was gone: