Hi,
I had a HUGE caterpillar in my garden a few weeks ago. It was not quite chocolate brown, and it had a voracious appetite. It ate a lot of my grape leaves...

It's a kind of butterfly that likes a plant that's a lot like celery, but I can never remember the plant's name. It grows about 6 feet tall.

I planted those plants for this kind of butterfly, and the yellow ones, but the butterflies never seemed to see the plants. I hadn't realized when I planted them that they were a bit under trees... like my ponderosa and my little pear.

Well, when I found the caterpillar I was so delighted. I took him/her a bit of the plant, but that didn't seem interesting to the caterpillar.

To give you an idea, the caterpillar was about as large as my index finger.

Okay, so this butterfly is really friendly. It sort of bobs around me when I come outside. And it let me get really close to it to take pictures. (I wish it had found a prettier place to alight. If I weren't so shaky I could have gotten a totally superb photo.

Question: How long do you think it takes a big caterpillar like that to turn into a butterfly? Do you think this butterfly could be that catterpillar from only a few weeks ago?