I've been babysitting Variegated Fritillary eggs, cats and now one of them pupated. I am like a kid with a kaleidoscope!!! The metallic sheen of colors on this chrysalis are breathtaking!!! I feel like I hit the Mother Lode!!! The photo does not do justice to the gleam of copper and gold. I am also fascinated by the markings that clearly show the wings, eyes and antenna!!!
~ Cat
Wow! Amazing photo TPP :) I never can find where the cats (BST) go to pupate. They just disappear one by one when they get huge.
~Sunny
Great pic Cat!
Thanks for sharing. I wonder if I get those where I live? Must do more reading and searching.
Gorgeous!! Don't think we get them here. Karen
http://www.cirrusimage.com/butterfly_varifrit.htm
I found some info, I guess they are all over, so there is hope for us.
Chris
wow, that's pretty. lucky, lucky, Cat
Awesome photo!
This little darlin' went into the chrysalis stage on October 7th - and eclosed on October 12th. My first Variegated Fritillary butterfly!!! Woohoo!!!
Ooooh ..... HOW PRETTY! That butterfly had the coolest looking chrysalis! No wonder ..... look how gorgeous it is!
Thanks for sharing your little beauty with us! :-) :-)
Oooh it's beautiful TPP~ and now we can see why the lovely colors in the chrysalis! Thanks for letting us see both stages :)
Cat, that is awesome! I wasn't sure what I was looking at for a few seconds in that first pic. Wow! The result is just beautiful too.
btw, I saw the pic of your little Blue on another thread. It was precious!
Thats wild how they look so much different from a cat to a Butterfly
Here is a photo of one that eclosed yesterday but I got home late at night and had to use a flash to get a photo in the dark!!! Have another that went into the chrysalis stage too.
As gorgeous as this butterfly is what made more of a flutter out here was the larval host plant it was using. I can't remember the exact name but it is a native violet that nobody has seen these butterflies using around here :o)
~ Cat
He's beautiful!
Cat!!
What can I say that hasn't been said? You must be beside yourself!!
Excellent! and Thank YOU!
:oD
oh cat it is beautiful. I really love how pretty the chrysalis is. Did you ever figure out what the plant was it was feeding on??
Cat, I have some too! This is the first thread I saw this morning and it made me even more excited to see your butterfly pics! (I started another thread with my pics so I wouldn't hijack yours) Mine have been eating my passionvine. I'll be going out today to collect eggs! I found 5 yesterday so maybe I'll luck out and they'll be VF's too.
Donna,
They were feeding on a native larval host - hybanthus verticillatus. It is a type of violet but quite different than the store bought violets I've seen. Turns out one of them was a Mexican Fritillary. Didn't realize how similar the cats and the chrysalids were until the butterfly emerged :o) That was a nice surprise and explains the difference in the eggs I saw.
Congrat Konkrete!!! I have several varieties of passion vine around my house and keep hoping something other than the Gulf Frits would use them!!!
A Julia dryas has been frequenting my duranta and lantana for the past five days and today I saw my yard's first Zebra longwing!!! WOOHOO!!!
I shall check out your post just so I can enjoy the beautiful frit photos!!!
~ Cat
Oh yay for you!! I bet you have some ZLW cats soon to show us! I'm still waiting for one to get lost.
