Great Spangled Fritillary (Speyeria cybele)
From Butterflies and Moths of North America:
Life history: Males patrol open areas for females. Eggs are laid in late summer on or near host violets. Newly-hatched caterpillars do not feed, but overwinter until spring, when they eat young violet leaves.
Caterpillar hosts: Various violet species (Viola).
Adult food: Nectar from many species of flowers including milkweeds, thistles, ironweed, dogbane, mountain laurel, verbena, vetch, bergamot, red clover, joe-pye weed, and purple coneflower.
Habitat: Open, moist places including fields, valleys, pastures, right-of-ways, meadows, open woodland, prairies.
Range: Throughout most of central and northern North America. (See link above for distribution map.)
4 comments:
Beautiful butterflies. You did a great job on these macros.
We are about one month away from them appearing here. Maybe the middle of June.
Nice photos.
Hey Marvin, in case you haven't seen it, there is a marvelous blog focusing on the natural and cultural history of the Ozarks called Ozark Highlands Of Missouri - I highly recommend it.
I haven't seen many butterflies yet this year. The summer heat is supposed to arrive here tomorrow. Maybe we will have more around then.
I love the last image of the butterfly with the white flowers. That image just captures my attention. Your knowledge of insects astounds me.
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