The orange beauty, the gulf fritillary stopped by for some nectar from our red penta, and deposited some eggs on our maypop passion vine, which is popping up all over our garden.

The fritillary is a common butterfly among the extreme southern parts of the United States. They are one of abundance in Southwest Florida, especially when the gardens have their host plant, the corky stem passion vine and the maypop passion vine. They love the pentas, lantana and blue porterweed nectar flowers, I have witnessed.

The gulf fritillary is among the Nymphalidae family, Heliconiinae subfamily and the Agraulis vanillae genus species. In addition, they are among the “brush-footed” butterfly family.

The medium sized butterfly has elongated forewings, with a wingspan expanding between 65 and 95 millimeters long. As mentioned previously the females are larger in size, darker in color, and have more extensive markings.

Another fun fact, the gulf fritillary has the capability of releasing chemicals – an unpleasant odor – from their abdominal glands, which helps in preventing them becoming a snack to predators, such as birds. Those chemicals are consumed when they are caterpillars from their host plants.