With our purple passionflower vine planted on the trellis at the front of our house, we get to see many hungry caterpillars first fill their bellies and then find a comfy place to create their chrysalises.
What Does a Gulf Fritillary Chrysalis Look Like?
These chrysalises are strange-looking. They are twisty, kind of bumpy, and beige.
When the caterpillar starts to create the chrysalis, it will hang upside down from a vertical surface. Slowly, it wiggles and twists and turns and covers its body in the chrysalis. It’s a fairly long process.
New Gulf Fritillary Butterfly Emerges
Just settling down to dry its wings on my tomato plant was a newly emerged Gulf Fritillary butterfly (Agraulis vanillae). The chrysalises I had watched being created were opening up and the orange and silver wings of the butterflies were starting to creep out.
During the 20 minutes or so that I spent watching, I counted six brand new butterflies drying their wings and then taking off in flight.
They are beautiful and delicate. They flash their bright orange wings with shimmers of silver. They are exquisite.
My new neighbors were outdoors too, so I went over to invite them to take a look. They brought their five-year-old son to take a look. He was enamored with the little insects. I love to see kids falling in love with what Nature has to show us. We talked a little about the host plant for these insects and what their caterpillars look like.
Soon, these butterflies will begin their migration to Florida. Now that they know I have their host plant in my garden, they return every year.
