When Ugly Becomes Beautiful

Cindy was talking to a friend recently who asked her about an ugly pest that was devouring the leaves on her citrus trees.  When the friend described the pest as "looking like a piece of bird poop", Cindy guessed that the "pest" was actually the larval stage of the Giant Swallowtail butterfly.  Our friend was horrified to hear this because she had been carefully picking the ugly things off her trees and feeding them to her chickens.

Fortunately, the Giant Swallowtail is not an endangered species and has become fairly prevalent in Southern California, where the larvae happily feed on the leaves of citrus trees; the world can always use more butterflies.  Although the caterpillars will chew up some of the leaves, they usually aren't numerous enough to damage the tree.

The Ugly Caterpillar

My friend Kris shot a great picture of a Giant Swallowtail a couple of years ago, and shortly after that  Cindy and I found one of the larva on one of our small citrus trees.  See http://plantagarden-itllgrowonyou.blogspot.com/2013/11/giant-swallowtail-butterfly.html.

Becomes the Beautiful Butterfly

Just another lesson in not judging the worth of something based on its initial appearance.