Gulf Fritillary Butterfly ~ Elizabeth Smith

Gulf Fritillary Butterfly, originally uploaded by Elizabeth Smith.

I’ve read that in the winter months, Gulf Fritillaries migrate from southern US states into the south Florida peninsula. Maybe that’s why I’m seeing so many of these brightly colored and patterned butterflies lately. Or perhaps it’s the new growth of Passiflora species I see popping up throughout my yard. Gulf Fritillaries use Passiflora as a larval food as well as a nectar source, and I often see the butterflies and caterpillars near this plant.

My model for these studies was found on the ground, possibly a victim of one of our recent freezing temperature dips. I was sad to find it dead, but happy to be able to observe it closely and sketch it from different angles. If you’d like to see an earlier journal entry showing the Passiflora leaves, and the Gulf Fritillary caterpillar and chrysalis, please click here.

To read more, see beautiful photos, and learn some interesting facts about the Gulf Fritillary butterfly, please visit these links:

University of Florida IFAS

Tree of Life

Butterfly Fun Facts

Wikipedia

You can also click on the caption under the image to view it on my Flickr photostream. A very happy New Year to my online friends!

~ Elizabeth Smith, Naples, FL, USA

Gulf fritillary ~ Elizabeth Smith

Gulf fritillary, originally uploaded by Elizabeth Smith.

It’s not often I get to draw these handsome butterflies up close – a chance glance at the ground, and I knew this was my next subject. Gulf fritillaries seem to be everywhere right now; usually we see the brilliant orange to chestnut top parts of their wings as they nectar or rest. Although this butterfly was somewhat battered, the bottom surface of the hindwing was in excellent shape. It’s hard to see this in my drawing, but the white-gray spots are a metallic silver. Beautiful!

Gulf Fritillaries use passionvine as their larval food source, which also happens to work well as a nectar plant!

You can click on the image above to view it on my Flickr photostream.

~ Elizabeth Smith, Naples, Florida, USA

Gulf Fritillary caterpillar and passionvine

Gulf Fritillary caterpillar and passionvine, originally uploaded by Elizabeth Smith.

Gulf fritillary and passionvine

In my yard there are numerous volunteer native passionvines, hiding themselves in shrubs and surreptitiously climbing trees. They aren’t very large; the leaves are maybe 3 inches (7.6 cm) wide if pressed flat. I think this is one of the corky-stemmed passionvines, Passiflora suberosa (the older part of the stem bases become woody, but with a cork-like appearance and texture). The flower is a nondescript pale yellow to green miniature version of the showy purple or red passion flower with which most people are familiar. No blooms now, but there are plenty of tattered and bite-ridden leaves.

The guilty party is the caterpillar of one of our beautiful longwing butterflies, the Gulf Fritillary. I found this striking caterpillar toward the end of his larval stage. He was about 1 ¼ inch long (3.2 cm), and created a chrysalis that is about 1 inch (2.5 cm). You can read more about the Gulf Fritillary here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gulf_Fritillary

I hope that I’ll be able to sketch him when he emerges.

Click on the image to access larger sizes on my Flickr page.

~ Elizabeth Smith
Naples, FL, USA