I finally finished the page that compares the Gulf Fritillary to the other two butterflies in my area that use Passiflora vines as host plants in my area. Click here to see it.

This Gulf Fritillary is nectaring on Buddleia, or Butterfly Bush. I took it with my older camera, so the quality isn't as good, but it's still one of my favorite pictures. It shows the movement of the butterfly, and I like the way its wings are visible.

One easy way to identify a Gulf Fritillary Butterfly is the shimmery metallic scales on the bottom of their wings.

 The metallic look is brighter when they are new butterflies, and haven't lost too many scales yet.

In these photos the metallic scales look silvery white, but in real life they look more like a mirror or a drop of silver solder.

This Gulf Fritillary is nectaring on Plumbago. They also enjoy Porterweed and Broomweed.

 

The life of a butterfly is pretty straightforward: eat, evade predators, make more butterflies. The make more butterflies part of that story is on Gulf Butterflies "Birds and the Bees".