While I was walking from the living room to the kitchen, I glanced out the back window and spotted a polydamas, gold rim, swallowtail butterfly circling the Dutchman Pipe. I quickly grabbed my camera and headed to the garden. I watched, took photos and filmed this female lay at least a dozen eggs.
She was so focused on her task at hand that she did not mind me taking more than a 100 photos.
The eggs she laid are approximately 1 mm in diameter and are partially covered by a nutritious secretion hard shell, which have vertical bands with large droplets. This secretion is produced by a gland that is above the female’s ovipository duct.
As the eggs mature and the larvae develop, they will turn a slight greenish color, approximately four to six days later.
When the caterpillars hatch, their first meal will be consuming the residual embryonic yolk, as well as the secretion on the outside of the egg.
The caterpillars will eat for about 19 to 24 days, with early instars molting, shedding old skin, about every four days.
