Gulf Fritillary

Before a flock of pigeons flew over and noticeably scared her, there was a gulf fritillary butterfly laying her eggs on my Passiflora. I wonder what she thought when she encountered my collection...perhaps something along the lines of, "Jackpot!" I stood with a camera watching her for 10 minutes or so trying to capture the moment when she stuck her egg to the leaves of my plants. I wasn't as lucky as I hoped, but I did capture a few shots of her and the evidence she left behind.

Butterfly Eggscapade

While doing rounds this morning and checking on my little plants grown from seed, I spotted a conspicuous yellow spec on one of the rounded leaves of an P. actinia hybrid. I knew what it was before really going in to inspect it, but as I did I noticed another. There had been Gulf Fritillary butterflies flitting about Pergolatory recently. I knew they were laying eggs by their behavior. They would stop as they do near flowers, except they were stopping at leaves, dropping their lower abdomens, and depositing eggs on my collection. The eggs are golden yellow and look like tiny bee hives with a cellular structure. I'm sure most of them die to my insecticides, so I'm not concerned a bit. Otherwise, it would be cause for alarm as those little caterpillars can really do a number.