is that a swallow tailed butterfly?

did more resarch and saw that the black swallow tailed is native to america and to attract them you need to plant lots of fernleaf dill or fennel.

Certainly is, I'm now told it is mostly found in Oklahoma.

Its beautiful, and interesting how the colours match the caterpillar's -can anybody think if there any other caterpillars with the same colours as the adults?

So where the heck is Delonix - he lives quite near my daughter ?

I used to raise these a long time ago and fed the caterpillars parsley. The caterpillars are banded with very interesting patterns of colors of green black and yellow. But what is most interesting is the caterpillars defense mechanism when disturbed. Touch it and it will send out a fleshy forked appendage from the top of its head which resembles a snakes tongue which is bright orange in color. This appendage emits a very spicy odor that is a bit irritating to the nose. This all happens very quickly and unexpectedly.

you will be surprised to know loosestrife that there is a caterpillar which has a tail the same shape as a snake head! forgot the name but I did see it on a news paper once.

Would be great to see that happen Loosestrife2! No tmuch chance in GB though. Two or three of British the hawkmoths have snaky heads - perhaps the one WLB saw was one of those- perhaps the silver striped or the small elephant?

Had slides that I took of this but after 50 years they have deteriorated very badly and are not reproducible. But! If you will go on YouTube and type in " black swallowtail caterpillar defense mechanism" you will see an excellent exhibition of this.

Wow, that's amazing! thanks for the link.