My wife came across this brightly colored caterpillar on our patio the other day. She’s usually quite ruthless towards caterpillars because they eat her roses and she mercilessly squashes them immediately. For some strange reason she was quite protective to this one – merely relocating it rather than consigning it to the usual caterpillar fate.

I didn’t know what it was, but after a bit of online research I’ve concluded that it’s probably the larval stage of the Eastern Black Swallowtail (Papilio polyxenes).

Taken with a Sony A77II and Tamron A18 AF 18-250mm f3.5-6.3.