While I was engaged in having brunch at my desk, she was hanging outside my windows on this butterfly bush. She did one full rotation around this plume and then she was off. I'm only about 80% confident it's a female.
The Gulf fritillary or passion butterfly (Dione vanillae or Agraulis vanillae in other taxonomies). An all-time favorite for the phenomenal difference between the dorsal and ventral view. Truly two butterflies in one.
Currently playing...
Monarchs are my favorites. Exquisite pics.
ReplyDeleteThanks, Trey. My favorites are all of the butterflies that come to visit.
DeleteI have a passionfruit vine, and adore watching the Gulf fritillary in every stage. Incredible. I was surprised at the short amount of time it took for them to find the vine, just when it was a couple feet tall.
ReplyDeleteIt’s a combination of sight, smell and taste. Butterflies use their antennae to detect organic compounds, sometimes from over a mile away. They also have special chemoreceptors on their tiny butterfly feet. “Butterflies and zebras and moonbeams, And her fairy tales, That's all she ever thinks about, Riding with the wind…”
DeleteWell, your post showed up on a timely basis this time! Great pics.
ReplyDeleteIt's because I went in yesterday, took a space out and made it update. That forced the platform to regenerate the metadata and ping the RSS feed all over again, waking up your blog list widget. This is done on a cycle rather than in real time but it's typically within the hour, not a day. Anyway, glad it's working and thank you for the compliment.
Delete