Gulf Fritillary Lifecycle Up Close and Personal

by Carolyn Henderson and Sue Ann Kendall

By coincidence, two different groups of El Camino Real Texas Master Naturalist members got to witness the lifecycle of the Gulf Fritillary butterfly (Dione vanillae) up close and in person on Saturday, November 4. Here are our stories.

From Carolyn Henderson

Six members of our chapter got to see a Gulf Fritilary emerge from its chrysalis Saturday at the El Camino Real Texas Master Naturalist Nature Day aththe Wildscape project.

The chrysalis was on the gate entrance to the Wildscape. Donna Lewis noticed it and Carolyn Henderson took the photos.

Traffic through the gate was heavy, but the butterfly managed to hang on and make its debut. The first photo was right after it got out. It was still wet. The second photo was taken about an hour later. It was still getting its bearings. 

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From Sue Ann Kendall

Coincidentally, I was camping at Buescher State Park near Smithville/Bastrop this weekend. I had taken many long hikes, led a guided nature walk with a group of people from a church, and made many iNat observations. But my best observation was made less than ten feet from our RV, while relaxing and knitting. Go figure.

We’re in a very woodsy campsite with lots of birds (very loud pileated woodpeckers for example) and I also enjoyed many butterflies wandering around, like sulphurs and red admirals. But one Gulf Fritillary was extra fun to watch. It spent a LOT of time right in front of me, at first on some straggler daisies (that stuff is EVERYWHERE), but then on a vine that I somehow had overlooked when I was taking note of what plants were growing at the campsite.

I watched as the butterfly kept landing on different parts of the leaves of the vine. I was a little slow that morning and wondered why it was so interesting, since there were no flowers on the vine. It dawned on me that the plant resembled a passion vine.

After the butterfly left, I went in to get a photo of the plant to identify it on iNat. That’s the photo above. I quickly realized there was more going on. Two caterpillars were munching away at one of the leaves.

I rushed back to my chair to investigate. The plant turned out to be the yellow passionvine (Passiflora lutea) that Linda Jo is always looking for on hikes. Hooray! And the caterpillars were Gulf fritillary caterpillars. Suddenly, the butterfly’s mission was clear. She was laying eggs. See the tiny yellow dot in the photo of the passionvine?

So, between Carolyn’s group and me, we’ve pretty much seen the entire lifecycle of the Gulf Fritillary!

Here’s what I learned from Wikipedia, which confirms all the things we’ve sen:

The caterpillar food plants–also called the host plants–for gulf fritillaries are members of the genus Passiflora. The adult butterflies use nectar from many flowers, including Lantana plants. The Passiflora host plants are frequently called passion vines; in some Texan counties where this butterfly’s population is high, gulf fritillaries will feed on specific species such as Passiflora lutea and Passiflora affinis. These passion vine plants are suitable host plants as they provide a good structure for larval host habitats which enables young populations of gulf fritillaries to be sufficiently nurtured and protected. The role of host plants is also integral to the oviposition of gulf fritillaries, as the female butterflies lay their eggs on or near the host plant.^[8][9]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gulf_fritillary