I love Gulf Fritillary!! I have raised and released 214 since March. It is by far the most numerous butterfly in my area. I have noticed that they seem healthier when eating Passiflora incarnata (old fashioned Maypop) vs Passiflora suberosa (Corky Stem) or Passiflora Incense (incarnata hybrid). They do better on Incense than on Corky Stem.

When you raise something in such numbers, probability says you are more likely to see some strange things. The one thing I've seen with Gulf Fritillary is an occasional difficulty eclosing because the part of the chrysalis (a V shaped wedge) that covers the head and "face" doesn't come off. They are left trapped in a mask. If I find them in time, the mask can be carefully removed with a fingernail and the butterfly is totally normal. If I don't find them in time, they have worn themselves out trying to remove it and they never really recover.

Here is a photo of one cat that decided pupating in the enclosure was not for her so she used the sliding glass door latch.

Here is another from the garden that attached itself to the bronze colored porch screen enclosure but made the chrysalis white in order to look like bird poop. As you can see, nothing ate it and it sprouted wings. :)

Anna

I've raised Gulf frits in large numbers in the past, too, Anna, and you're right, when you raise them in large numbers, you can find a few strange things!

I think my two are about ready to make their chrysalis, they're getting big -

Sherry

About a ?week ago I found two tiny gulf frit hatchlings and brought them in to a cage to raise myself. I've been finding them off and on since them, and I'm now up to 5! 'Keep this up, and I'll have a normal number! I have SO much P. incarnata for them to eat, I hope I get a lot more. And you're right, Anna, P. incarnata/maypops is their favorite to lay eggs on and rightly so - they grow very quickly and stay in good health on maypops!

Here's a picture of the last GF cat I brought in -

Sherry

How cute! I am still having a lot of caterpillars. The only passion vine they don’t really seem to like is the native yellow one.

Iris, is that Passiflora Lutea? I was thinking of adding that one to the garden, but if it's not a big attractor for GFs or Zebra Longwing, I'll stick with P. Incarnata.

Anna

It is. Maybe it has something to do with the location, too. The other side of the fence is a big tangle of the incarnata/ maypop.

We have lots of GF cats here. I am still mad at them for killing off my Sunburst Passiflora last year. I have 10 diff passion vines they could eat but they only wanted to kill that one lol!! Now I cant find another Sunburst Vine for the life of me. No one has it in stock anymore.

Wow, just looked up that Passiflora Sunburst, it's beautiful!! I've never seen it before. I did have to remove a white and lavender flowered hybrid Passiflora (don't remember the name) because it killed any GF cats that ate it. :( A bad Big Box Store buy.

Anna

Sultry, they're just out of Sunburst for now - more will be available next spring, I'm sure.

I'm really surprised they picked Sunburst, since it's in the decaloba group of passionvines! They won't use P. lutea (decaloba group) here if there's any P. incarnata or just about any passionvine in the regular passiflora group available. If I were you, I'd watch for gulf frits laying eggs on your passionvines, and, if she uses your Sunburst, I'd move the tiny hatchlings to vines you don't value so much. You could just cut off the leaf the hatchling is on, put the stem of the leaf in a floral tube with water, attach it to the preferred vine, and the gulf frit cat will climb onto the P. incarnata or whatever.

Sherry