Butterflies And Wildlife » Variegated Fritillary

Variegated Fritillary Basking

texdr — Mon, 07 Jun 2010 00:15:17 +0000

I saw 3 of these yesterday. That’s more than I’ve ever seen in the backyard. Two of them would chase each other, while the other just laid eggs.

This might be one of the better pictures I’ve taken of a Variegated as she rested on a rock right in front of me.

Variegated Fritillary Basking On Rock

Butterflies Were Everywhere Today

texdr — Sat, 05 Jun 2010 04:30:57 +0000

Holy Cow! Today there were Butterflies everywhere in the backyard. We had a Monarch, Question Mark, Variegated Fritillary, Giant Swallowtail, Grey Hairstreak, Eastern Black Swallowtail, some type of Crescent Butterfly, and a Pipevine Swallowtail.

I got a few pictures, but I missed several and several others weren’t that good as I got over-excited.

The plants that seemed to be attracting the most Butterflies were the Lantana and Butterfly Bush.

The most prevalent Butterfly I saw today was the Eastern Black Swallowtail. Interestingly, none of them were laying any eggs, they were just going after the nectar and chasing each other.

Eastern Black Swallowtail On Butterfly Bush

On top of all that, we’re having a crisis. We are running out of Dutchman’s Pipevine (Aristolochia Fimbriata) and neither Joshua’s Native Plants nor Buchanan’s Native Plants has any in stock. We have at least 15 huge Pipevine Swallowtail Caterpillars and although I’ve been thinking they will soon stop eating and form Chrysalises, I’m apparently mistaken. I could have sworn they were going to stop eating yesterday, and yet today there they were, still munching away. They were even eating the Dutchman’s Pipevine stems since there were so few leaves.

I’m going to start calling first thing in the morning and see if any other nurseries have this plant in stock. For those of you in the Houston area reading this, if you know of a source, please share!

Variegated Fritillary Laying Eggs

texdr — Tue, 01 Jun 2010 00:26:44 +0000

This is a first. We’ve had tons of Gulf Fritillaries in previous years, but never have we seen a Variegated Fritillary in our backyard, and certainly not one that was laying eggs.

Hopefully she laid quite a few eggs as I would really love to see these Caterpillars mature so I can get some pictures of them.

Variegated Fritillary Laying Eggs On Passionvine

Finally Some Butterflies

texdr — Thu, 02 Jul 2009 06:36:44 +0000

Once we finished walking along the creek (or river), we hiked along a trail that had lots of vines, low grasses, and in one case, a tasty roof (I’ll explain shortly). Some of these Butterflies I have never seen in my backyard, so it was refreshing to witness something new.

Here’s a Red Banded Hairstreak. I actually do see these guys in the backyard occasionally, but I’ve never been able to get a picture.

Red Banded Hairstreak

Then there was a Pipevine. I must have tried to take over 50 photos of this Butterfly while it was in flight and none were in focus. Fortunately for me, he decided to take a break along the trail and I snapped away.

Pipevine Swallowtail Resting

Here’s a Butterfly I’ve never seen before. It’s a Variegated Fritillary

Variegated Fritillary

Is the Butterfly below a Monarch? Nope, it’s a Viceroy.

Viceroy Butterfly

The differences between a Viceroy and a Monarch are Viceroy’s don’t host on Milkweed, and they have a thick black line loops across their lower wing.

Viceroy Butterfly Wings Open

Last but not least is the Question Mark Butterfly. These Butterflies prefer to get nectar from tree sap, rotting fruit, animal droppings, and roofing?

For some unknown reason, this Butterfly was sipping at something on this roof. No idea why unless the roofing contained some type of sap.

Question Mark Butterfly