Variegated Fritillary Caterpillar (Euptoieta claudia)

Variegated Fritillary Caterpillar (Euptoieta claudia)

Source:  BugGuide:

Range:  North America and southern South America.  Permanent resident in south. Annually spreads and colonizes northwards usaully to southern Canada. 

Habitat:  Any open sunny area particularly fields and grasslands with flowers present. Caterpillars can often be found on Pansies, Violets, Flax, and Passion Vines in flower gardens.  (This particular caterpillar was found on our basement door.  Moved to a nearby log for photographing.)

Life Cycle:  Multiple generations per year (up to two or three in north, and four or more overlapping broods in south).

Variegated Fritillary Caterpillar (Euptoieta claudia)

Variegated Fritillary Butterfly (Euptoieta claudia)

A very common, widespread and prolific butterfly. Both adults and caterpillars feed on a wide variety of plants.

Range: Higher elevations of Argentina through Central America and Mexico to the southern United States; also Cuba and Jamaica. Regularly colonizes north through most of the United States except the Pacific Northwest.

Flight: Three broods from April-October in the north, four broods from February or March-November or December in the south.

Habitat: Open sunny areas such as prairies, fields, pastures, road edges, landfills. Males patrol short distances in flat, dry, open places. Eggs are laid singly on host plant stems and leaves; caterpillars eat leaves and flowers.

Sources and additional information:
BugGuide Species Page
Butterflies and Moths of North America

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 United States License.

.

Variegated Fritillary Butterfly (Euptoieta claudia)