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I went out in my front yard this morning just to look around and I noticed a few leaves missing on my ground cover Aegapodium; or what my mother used to call Bishop's weed.
When leaves are missing that means a critter is nearby.
This is a black swallowtail butterfly in the making.




I was delighted and surprised to find this catepillar; the forerunner to a butterfly. When I lived in the country, they showed up every year to eat the parsley, the dill and the fennel that I had planted in various places. They'll eat and eat and eat until they strip the plant bare, but for some reason I've never seen a plant die because of it. They always manage to sprout new leaves and continue growing.
I didn't know these catepillars would eat bishop's weed. They are quite particular about their diet.

These are the bare stems. Somebody cleaned her plate!