I have grown fennel for several years, but have never eaten any. I always leave it in the garden way past it’s prime for the butterflies. It is a host plant for the Eastern Black Swallowtail. Here are the stages I’ve seen in the last few days.
Unfortunately, another visitor has been the red wasps who seem to like the caterpillars 😦
willsfamilyacres 
Darn those wasps! We need to tell them to go eat the bad guys. Seems like there must be a cut worm out there somewhere.
There’s plenty of bad guys, they just don’t seem to like them as much 😦
So clever of you to capture the whole life cycle. Roadrunner like those caterpillars too!
Interesting. I’ve never seen a roadrunner in my garden. As cool as they are, I’d have to root for the caterpillar.