Black Swallowtail Caterpillar

Description:

The Black Swallowtail caterpillar has an orange "forked gland", called the osmeterium. When in danger the osmeterium, which looks like a snake's tongue, everts and releases a foul smell to repel predators.

Habitat:

Black Swallowtwails use plants of the carrot family, this one was on a Queen Anne's Lace in my backyard (Middleway, WV)

Notes:

This year we seemed to have a wider variety of butterflies around our yard than we've had in the past, and we were lucky enough to come across many different types of caterpillars!