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.)
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15 comments:
beautiful butterfly
ROG, ABC Wednesday team
Great photos Marvin. I can't wait to see them flitting through the summer breezes.
Wonderful photo. I am looking forward to seeing butterflies in my gardens.
Beautiful! I didn't know that I had a yard full of Great Spangled Fritillary caterpillar food! I'm going to start looking at the violet leaves.
That top photo is butterfly perfection. Gorgeous!
No Speyeria yet, but saw the first goatweed butterfly out yesterday. It was cooler than I though any butterfly would like, but the one I saw was in a warm, protected, southwest-facing opening in the woods.
awwwwwww...totally beautiful....:)
Great to be here. Hope you can take a look at my ABC Wednesday entry as well. Thanks!
That first picture is of National Geographic quality!! Just stunning.
Gorgeous, beautiful patterns. Violets are one of my favourite flowers too:-) The first butterfly of the year is a special moment.
Cute!
Please visit my first ABC entry, thank you and nice to meet you through ABC.
I couldn't find my picture of the gulf fritillary that are most common around here. Lovely photos.
pretty butterfly nice shot :)
MY ABC Wednesday is here hope you can check it out.
They look like ones I used to see when I was a kid many, many years ago. I'm in central CA, where it says they might roam. We''ve lost our diversity of butterflies with all the development. Bummer!
Beautiful shots! Though I've not seen any fritillaries yet, the sulfurs have been out in force (though honestly, they're out all winter as long as there's some sunshine to soak up). And I saw the first returning monarch yesterday afternoon. That's always a treat.
Thanks for the link, Marvin. I hope you do well with your sales. Your product is just beautiful. I'm going to save up to make a purchase!! (Stop by if you have a minute. I'm having a little give-away!!) ~karen
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