Gulf Fritillary

Lately we've been having a lot of butterflies fluttering about the Lantana plants in the front. We've always had a lot of the Western Tiger Swallowtails and little skipper butterflies but this year we have one I hadn't noticed before.



My husband, who is usually well informed on names and types of bugs and especially birds, was stumped on this one. So I did what any normally curious person would do and I image-googled "orange butterflies". Up popped a bunch of photos of all kinds of different orange colored butterflies. I found my butterfly on the first page in an image taken from http://www.treknature.com/. It said it was an "Agraulis Vanillae Maculosa", common in Buenos Aires.

Then my husband suggested I google "Kern County butterflies". I did so and found a nice website called, if you can believe it, "Butterflies of Kern County"! I found my butterfly again along with its common name, the Gulf Fritillary.

What I find so interesting about these butterflies is the top and bottom have completely separate patterns. I'm sure it's not all that unusual but it seems to me that most moth and butterfly undersides are just a duller version of the topside.

During my research I found this on YouTube. I don't know how to post it here but here's the link and you can go there. It's a Gulf Fritillary pupating in time lapse.


Call me wierd but butterflies are somehow soothing to me, like the sound of tinkling water from a fountain.