Fritillary - I think???

16 years ago

Hi everyone, I guess I should introduce myself, I'm a regular Garden Web poster, but I'm a newbie to butterflies and butterfly gardening. I'm hooked on these beautiful creatures now that I live in what seems to be butterfly heaven! (aka western Kentucky) Just by happy accident I planted an orange and purple garden last season which seems to have attracted a large number and variety of butterflies as well as hummingbirds. We live on 5 acres of mostly old pasture bordered by woodland so our wild friends have lots of food and shelter. Since I've been reading about what kinds of host plants certain butterflies need I've realized that I'd already planted a lot of them already, like bronze fennel,parsley, and milkweed. Our field is full of "butterfly weed" and ironweed and asters and mountain mint and wild bergamot and other butterfly plants. This year we didn't bushhog the field, mostly due to the drought, but I'm hoping that it helped out the butterflies and other wildlife. I hate cutting the field but we need to keep out the woody growth that would eventually take over. OK, so now to the photo, I think I took this in August, can't be sure, I just downloaded some pics from my camera today. Do you think this is a Great Spangled Fritillary? I have a couple of books but it's so hard to tell.

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Thanks!

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Comments (4)

MissSherry
16 years ago
Welcome to the forum, linrose - those are beautiful pictures! I can't tell for sure whether your butterfly is a great-spangled fritillary or an aphrodite - they don't occur here - but based on pictures in my West Virginia book, I think it's a female GSF.
MissSherry
mikem58
16 years ago
Yes...This has all the characteristics and markings of the Great Spangled Frit....Nice pics too!!

Cheers!....Mike
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linrose
Original Author
16 years ago
Thank you both, and thanks for the welcome! I'm surprised the pictures came out so well, I have an old first generation digital camera that isn't great at close ups. I used to only use my old Pentax SLR from the 70s which takes great pics, but now I guess I'm too lazy, or too much in need of the instant gratification that digital cameras offer.

I have three books, Butterflies through Binoculars: The East, the Kaufman Field Guide to Butterflies of North America, and Rodale's Attracting Butterflies and Hummingbirds to Your Backyard. I need to study them so I can identify what I'm seeing without taking a photo or running for the book before they fly away. I'm also facinated with their chrysalis phase - I watched a caterpillar moving its way around my deck railing until it found just the right spot to anchor itself - I thought it would emerge soon, but it just sits there looking brown and dead - I'll need to post a photo of it so I can figure out what it is. Most books don't show many chrysalis pics. I'm only familiar with the Monarchs.
butterfly_pixie
16 years ago
Hey, a fellow Kentuckian....those are great shots!
Butterfly gardening is so addictive!

Judy
www.ButterflyNature.com

Fritillary - I think???

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MissSherry

mikem58

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Fritillary - I think???

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MissSherry

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