Gulf Fritillary
 

Last year I enjoyed a spectacular show when the Gulf Fritillary butterflies
visited my yard and then proceeded to make it their home. It was a delight
to be surrounded by them. This year, I have the same Passion Flower that
attracted them this year, and have seen a few scouts in the last week or so.
But alas, the storm.
I've googled for Gulf Fritillary and migration patterns, etc, schedules and
can find nothing about the norm, much less if there is a storm.
Any ideas or input?
Seems like I remember them showing about this time las year.
Oh, I'm southwest of New Orleans.
Perry

On Fri, 2 Sep 2005 21:09:10 -0500, "Perry Templeton"
wrote:

I've googled for Gulf Fritillary and migration patterns, etc, schedules and
can find nothing about the norm, much less if there is a storm.
Any ideas or input?
Seems like I remember them showing about this time las year.
Oh, I'm southwest of New Orleans.
Perry

I enjoy them every year too, but I can't tell you where they come from
or migrate to. At present there are chrysalis hanging in many
places around the yard, but they will soon be empty and none remain
over winter. Some years I notice a few arrivals along in the early
Summer as the weather warms, but the majority show up at my place in
Middle Georgia in August.

I wouldn't worry about not having any this year, they will most likely
be back next year. Doomsayers have been predicting the demise of the
Monarch ever since I started reading newsgroups, but they come back
every year.

I noticed a couple maypop's had jumped the pot, but decided to let
them be and see if it would be necessary to control them. They
seemed quite happy growing over the lantana and across the walkways,
but once the large numbers of butterflies began showing up I was glad
to have the extra larvae food. The larvae can eat so much of the
plant it can't produce enough energy to come back next year.

I have some variegated fritillary laying on the maypop this year too.
Their larvae have white stripes lengthwise.

I have kept a spicebush for about 5 years now and this was the first
year to have Spicebush Swallowtail Larvae on it. They are cute
little critters and I've really enjoyed finding them.

Regards,

Hal