A gulf fritillary’s egg is yellow and can be found on either the maypop passion vine (pictured above), or the corky stem passion vine, both of which are the host plant for this butterfly.
The egg will hatch three to five days after being laid. The caterpillar will spend up to 16 days eating.
Check out my page to learn more about the gulf fritillary and all of its stages from egg to butterfly at https://bit.ly/3vMyhbM.
The zebra longwing butterfly is finally laying eggs in the garden. I spotted the first caterpillar that we have had in a really long time.
It’s interesting that the zebra longwing female butterfly likes to find shady spots to lay her eggs. This plant is not in a shady area and has at least three more eggs that you can see in the photo.
More photos and the interesting facts about Florida’s state butterfly can be found https://bit.ly/3Nvr3Py.
This afternoon I watched a gulf fritillary butterfly lay eggs, completely missing the host plant maypop passion vine, and instead leaving its deposit on the mulch nearby.
Did you know that the butterfly’s abdomen, the hind part of its body, has ten segments? The first seven segments have an external respiratory opening, allowing it to breathe on both sides, while nine and 10 are for mating, egg laying and excretion.
The male has “claspers” on the ninth segment, which will grab the tip of the female’s abdomen while mating. Interesting fact: females have two reproductive openings, one for mating, while the other is for laying eggs.
Here is a glimpse of the flowers that are in bloom from our front butterfly garden. A perk of native flowers, they are pretty much in bloom year round in Southwest Florida. All of these flowers do wonderful in our garden, growing in full sun, and full of nectar for the butterflies to sip.
The gulf fritillary loves visiting our garden during the morning hours. This morning I watched a female drink from five nectar plants, all different varieties, before laying eggs on two different host plants. The female has a larger wingspan of a male and is somewhat darker with more extensive markings.
An interesting fact, the gulf fritillary is part of the “brush-footed” butterfly family. A family that has short hairs on the front of its legs.
According to the Florida Wildflower Foundation the gulf fritillary will release chemicals of “an unpleasant odor” from its abdominal glands when it is disturbed. This helps in protecting itself from becoming a snack to birds and other predators. The host plant of the gulf fritillary contains toxins, which stays in the body through the butterfly stage and can become “lethal” to predators that do not have the same immunities.
As always here’s a link to my page on the gulf fritillary life cycle, complete with photos from our garden https://sweetbutterflybliss.com/gulf-fritillary/?frame-nonce=055550061c