Posts Tagged: Agraulis vanillae
Passionate About the Passionflower Vines
Valley carpenter bees are passionate about passionflower vines (Passiflora). You see these black bees foraging on the blossoms. Tiny grains of...
A female Valley carpenter bee is covered with yellow pollen. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
Female Valley carpenter bee on a passionflower blossom. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
Just Emerged: Gulf Fritillary Butterfly
Call it serendipity. Call it a prize from the sky. Frankly, it's not every day that a newly emerged Gulf Fritillary butterfly, Agraulis...
Newly emerged Gulf Fritillary butterfly, fresh from its chrysalis, lands on a bed of wood chips. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
Gulf Fritillary starts to stir. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
Gulf Fritillary drying off on a passionflower vine. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
Gulf Fritillary slightly opens its wings. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
First opening of the wings. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
Another butterfly comes down to investigate. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
One last spread of the wings, and it's off. It's a male.(Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
The Terminator
So here you are, a Gulf Fritillary caterpillar, chowing down on the leaves of a passionflower vine. Your mother laid an egg, you hatched into a...
A European paper wasp on the hunt. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
A European paper wasp attacks a Gulf Fritillary caterpillar. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
The European paper wasp tears apart the caterpillar, food for its young. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
It All Begins with an Egg
It's no surprise that students as young as kindergarteners are eager to learn about the life cycle of a butterfly--from an egg, to a caterpillar to a...
Tiny Gulf Fritillary butterfly egg at end of a tendril on a passionflower vine. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
A very hungry caterpillar. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
A chrysalis: soon a butterfly will emerge. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
An adult Gulf Fritillary. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
It's a Girl!
At last! From an egg to a caterpillar to a chrysalis to a butterfly. And it's a girl! For several days we've been protecting a Gulf Fritillary...
Female Gulf Fritillary butterfly dries her wings after emerging from her chrysalis. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
Newly emerged Gulf Fritillary butterfly hangs on the fence. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
A suitor approaches the female. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
Almost engaged. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
Mating Gulf Fritillary butterflies. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
The female is doing a post-coital stretch, according to butterfly expert Art Shapiro, professor of evolution and ecology at UC Davis. "She's a tad oddly marked, too." (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)