New Resident in Archie's Garden

Yuck! While working in the Archie's Garden, Elizabeth noticed a gigantic and gross bird dropping on the leaf of an orange tree.

Yuck!

But hang on a second! There's something suspicious about that bird poop.

Hey... wait a minute ...

It turns out that it wasn't what it looked like... As you can read here, this is a caterpillar of the Giant Swallowtail Butterfly.

It's moving!

To protect itself from predators, this species uses "bio-mimicry," a fancy word for disguise. Unlike some caterpillars who depend on hiding under leaves, or only moving when it's dark out, the Giant Swallowtail caterpillar can stay right out in the open. Most predators will think like we did — that's just a bird poop — and will not pay any more attention.

(as always, click on the pictures for larger versions)