There were 10 gulf fritillary butterflies drinking from various nectar plants in the garden this morning, all at the same time. At one point I could hear their wings flap past me as they landed on pentas right next to me. It was gratifying to see that they also stopped by the zinnia for a drink.
The gulf fritillary chrysalis can sometimes be hard to spot, as they blend in with their surroundings. We have four that crawled a fair distance from its host plant to the side of our house.
The female of a gulf fritillary will lay one egg at a time either on or near the host plant, corky stem passion vine or maypop passion vine. Anywhere from three to five days later the caterpillar will emerge, eating the shell before continuing onto the leaves. The caterpillar will continue to eat for up to 16 days.
The chrysalis begins by the caterpillar attaching the rear of itself with a silk white thread, which can be seen in the photo. As the caterpillar makes small muscle contractions it sheds its skin and slowly forms the chrysalis. The chrysalis will harden and the butterfly will emerge anywhere from 11 to 21 days later.
We had another three monarch butterflies hatch in our butterfly house this morning! The grand total for the month of August . . . 53 successful releases.
This male beauty was in no rush to fly away . . . no worries, stay awhile.
Today a male (left) and female (right) monarch hatched in our butterfly house taking our grand total to 50 so far this month, 218 overall. Two more released into the garden, continuing the life cycle of these gorgeous butterflies.
My daughter and I found this cassius blue, Leptotes cassius theonus, by chance sitting on a blade of grass in the yard. This tiny butterfly is always fun to spot and find sitting still, as it has a pretty erratic flight.
This butterfly is said to be pretty common throughout Florida, specially along the coasts. Apparently there are two subspecies, theonus, which can be found in Florida, and striata, found in Texas. They have a nickname of “zebra blues” due to the dark stripes found on the underside of the wing. I have yet to capture a photograph of the top of the wings.
