Gulf Fritillary Butterfly Caterpillar by Leeco

Photography • Insects • posted on Aug 25, 2008

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Description

Nikon 7900 pocket camera, hand held image. I decided my theme for this week will be “miscellaneous critters”, lol. Today’s image is a “Gulf Fritillary Butterfly” caterpillar. I see a lot of both adults and caterpillars most years, but not this year; however it is one of the very few species that I have managed to get images of the entire life cycle – from eggs to adults. The passion flower vines that grow wild on my place were hard pressed to just survive this season because of a very hot, very dry summer. I have only seen 3 or 4 of these caterpillars all year and not many more of the adults or even other caterpillar species. Recent (desperately needed) rains have revived the plants and I expect to see some of the late season broods attracted by the new green foliage. Kingdom Animalia (Animals) Phylum Arthropoda (Arthropods) Class Insecta (Insects) Order Lepidoptera (Butterflies and Moths) Superfamily Papilionoidea (Butterflies) Family Nymphalidae (Brushfooted Butterflies) Subfamily Heliconiinae (Heliconians and Fritillaries) Genus Agraulis Species vanillae (Gulf Fritillary) They have a wing span of 63 - 95 mm ( 2 1/2 - 3 3/4 inches). The elongated silvery spots on the bottom of the butterfly's hind wings and the edge of its forewings are unmistakable. The tops are bright orange with black markings around the border and three black-rimmed white spots on each forewing. Larvae are generally orange with black branched spines and greenish-black stripes. There is a larval variant with purple/lavender stripes, seen mostly in Texas. I even have managed to get a great shot of this variation. Larvae feed on various species of Passion Flower (Passiflora) Eggs are yellow, laid singly on leaves of host plants. They occur mainly in the southern US, but stray northwards. Thanks to those who take the time to comment. Lee