Gulf fritillary
The gulf fritillary is a bright orange butterfly with long, narrow wings and black stripes. Underneath, its wings are brown with shiny silver spots. Its spiky orange caterpillars live on passion flower vines.
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Fun facts
Birds learn to leave it alone, because it lets out a stinky smell when danger is near.
Its scientific name comes from a painting from 1705 that showed it on a vanilla plant. Later people found out the caterpillars never eat vanilla.
The eggs start out yellow and turn brownish red in just one day.
Newly hatched caterpillars eat their own egg shells as their first meal.
The females are bigger and darker than the males.
Most asked questions about Gulf fritillary
?What do gulf fritillary caterpillars eat?
Only the leaves of passion flower vines. That is why people plant these vines in butterfly gardens.
?How big is a gulf fritillary?
Its wings are about 6.5 to 9.5 centimetres from tip to tip.
?Where does the gulf fritillary live?
In the warm south of the United States and all the way down to Argentina. People also brought it to Hawaii.
For bug experts
- Scientific name
- Dione vanillae
- Named by
- Linnaeus, 1758
- Group
- Butterflies
- Family
- Nymphalidae
- Classification
- Insecta > Lepidoptera > Nymphalidae
- Lives on
- North America, South America, Australia and Oceania
- Also known as
- Passion butterfly
Where the facts come from
- Gulf fritillary (Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0): what it looks like, where it lives, what it eats, sizes and fun facts, retold in simple words.
- Picture by Korall. CC BY-SA 3.0, Wikimedia Commons. The round sticker of this bug is cut from the same picture.
If we got something wrong, sorry, we are bug fans, not a science journal. Tell us at hello@bugwiki.app and we will fix it.
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