Gulf Fritillary and others

13 years ago

When I was mowing over the weekend, I saw a Gulf Fritillary on my red zinnias. I stopped my mower and went inside to get my camera. Of course when I came back out, it was gone. I decided to gas up my mower and check again and it was back. : ) The two photos on the red zinnia are the same butterfly (Gulf Frit). I got a picture with the wings open and one with the wings closed. It's only the second one I've ever seen.

The picture of the Red Admiral on my shoe was taken a couple weeks ago.

I'm not sure what the black butterfly is.

The one on the yellow cosmos is a Variegated Fritillary I think. Whatever it is, it's very common in my yard.

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Comments (6)

helenh
13 years ago
Your colors are gorgeous. That Gulf Fritillary is very pretty on the red zinnia. Hot colors for a hot month. I just saw a picture of spicebush swallowtail and the caption said you could tell it by the half moon shapes. I see half moon shapes on your black butterfly.
gldno1
13 years ago
Christie, those are wonderful pics of the butterflies.

I agree, the black is a Spicebush. They have the neatest caterpillars with coloring to look like large eyes on their heads.

Yesterday I saw another Monarch and a Pipevine Swallowtail (I think). It was too hot to go out and try to get a picture.

I am going to lay out an overripe banana today and see what it draws.
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gldno1
13 years ago
Well, I put the banana out this morning and it drew several of some kind of orange butterfly, maybe a fritillary. They kept their wings closed while feeding. There are two on it right now.

I got a couple of sorry pictures this morning. {{gwi:519466}}From August 2010
From August 2010

We have lots of these black caterpillars climbing around the back door the largestd is about 1 inch. Does anyone know what they are?
From August 2010

I hate to kill them if they are a butterfly caterpillar.
christie_sw_mo
Original Author
13 years ago
Thanks - The red zinnias photograph well. A few of them were laying over and broken off after the little storm we had Saturday night. : ( My verbena bonariensis was almost horizontal but not broken off.

Glenda - I looked at images of black caterpillars. There are Leopard Moths and Tiger Moths that are black and spiny like that and kinda pretty. If you knew what to feed them, you could put a couple in a jar and see what they turn into. Someone in the Butterfly forum might be able to id them for you and tell you what to do with them if you want to raise some. Some moths crawl under leaves or down into the soil to pupate.
helenh
13 years ago
Butterfly house Close Park Springfield dinner is served. They also had a butterfly feeder there. I saw one drinking. They had sponges in cups of orange gatorade but the flies seemed to like those.
christie_sw_mo
Original Author
13 years ago
Is there a bowl of gravel underneath the fruit? I wonder why they do that.
The fruit doesn't look very appetizing but it's worth it to attract those Red Spotted Purples. Another pretty one that will go to rotten fruit, that I haven't seen this year is Viceroy. They look a lot like a Monarch.