Front-Porch Fritillaries: Orange on Orange

When we visited East Texas a few years ago, we stayed in a place with a front garden full of flowers. Sitting on the porch each morning, we were always delighted by the constant traffic of butterflies. One in particular seemed to enjoy the variety of zinnias (Zinnia elegans). Although there was a rainbow of colors on offer, it was the orange zinnia that I kept coming back to. I liked the orange-on-orange strength that Gulf Fritillary butterflies (Agraulis vanillae, more recently classified as Dione vanillae) brought to the compositions.

The Gulf Fritillary is a long-winged member of the brush-footed butterfly family, and it is easy to recognize once you know it. The upper side of its wings is a bright, warm orange laced with black, with a trio of small white dots ringed in black near the front edge of each forewing. It is a medium-sized butterfly, with a wingspan of roughly 2.5 to 3.75 inches (6.3 to 9.5 cm). Its range sweeps across the southern United States — Texas very much included — and down through Mexico and Central America into South America.

One morning, two of them shared a single bloom, and the pairing told the whole story of the species in a single frame. One held its wings open, all that molten orange on display; the other kept its wings closed, revealing what looked like an entirely different butterfly — a soft brown underside spangled with elongated, iridescent silver spots. It is hard to believe both surfaces belong to the same insect. That silvery underside is the field mark butterfly watchers rely on to name the species with certainty.

I had assumed the zinnias were doing double duty, but the flowers are only a filling station. Adult Gulf Fritillaries drink nectar from zinnias, lantana, and Mexican sunflower, yet they will not lay their eggs there. For that, they need passionflower (Passiflora), the sole host plant for their spiny orange-and-black caterpillars. So the busy porch traffic we enjoyed each morning was really a nectar run; the nursery itself would have been a passionflower vine somewhere nearby. Plant the passionflower and, sooner or later, the fritillaries find it.

For a few slow mornings on that porch, though, none of that mattered much. There was coffee, there was warm light, and there was a steady parade of orange wings choosing the orange flowers — as if the whole garden had agreed on a palette.

That is the story behind the shots. If you liked this post, you may also be interested in others featuring FlowerHour, Gulf Fritillary, Texas, Wildflowers, Wildlife, and Zinnia. Until the next time, keep clicking and capturing the beauty your eyes find.

Posted for Terri’s Flower Hour #39.

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Sources:

• Wikipedia — Gulf fritillary — https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gulf_fritillary
• Florida Wildflower Foundation — Know Your Native Pollinators: Gulf Fritillary — https://www.flawildflowers.org/know-your-native-pollinators-gulf-fritillary/
• Texas A&M AgriLife, Field Guide to Common Texas Insects — Gulf Fritillary — https://texasinsects.tamu.edu/gulf-fritillary/
• Florida Museum of Natural History — Gulf Fritillary — https://www.floridamuseum.ufl.edu/exhibits/butterflies/gulf-fritillary/