This beautiful butterfly is common along the Texas Gulf Coast.
The larvae or caterpillar is not so pretty and is quite toxic so that the birds give it a pass. It typically feeds on passion flowers.
2 comments:
Pamela J. Francis
said...
These are beautiful and abundant! In the last two weeks I have also watched the variegated fritillary make cocoons that hang off my balcony rails! The caterpillar is similar to this one, but is lighter--more orange and white striped--but has the same spikes!
That's not a pic of a gulf fritillaru caterpillar tho... that is an oleander moth. They are extremely close in appearance, however the oleander moth is more hairy. The gulf fritillaru is more... um... almost spiky than hairy.
2 comments:
These are beautiful and abundant! In the last two weeks I have also watched the variegated fritillary make cocoons that hang off my balcony rails! The caterpillar is similar to this one, but is lighter--more orange and white striped--but has the same spikes!
That's not a pic of a gulf fritillaru caterpillar tho... that is an oleander moth. They are extremely close in appearance, however the oleander moth is more hairy. The gulf fritillaru is more... um... almost spiky than hairy.
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