Category: Agraulis_vanillae

Gulf Fritillary Lays Egg

7/28/2017

Today we saw a gulf fritillary (Agraulis vanillae) lay an egg on our passionflower (Passiflora).

Well, just as we were taking the last set of photos for our last run of gulfs (Agraulis vanillae) that had pupated on our potted passionflower (Passiflora), an adult female decided to swoop in and lay. It didn't stay for long though, so only one egg was laid on the potted passionflower. It was laid on one of the vine shoots.

While we don't have a whole lot of time left here to raise any new hatchlings, this shouldn't be a problem with the potted plant. In fact, it's a great opportunity to catch up on the early stages that we missed last time and have a complete life history set before we leave and (probably) never see these again.

Authors
Brian Liang

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Agraulis vanillae Rearing Notes (7/27/17-7/28/17)

7/28/2017

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Rearing notes for gulf fritillaries (Agraulis vanillae) found as larvae on passionflower (Passiflora) in Albany, California.

Rearing notes 7/27/17-7/28/17:

7/28:

And there we have it

7/27:

The two remaining larvae are both J's now

Authors
Brian Liang

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Agraulis vanillae L5 Rearing Notes (7/20/16-7/25/17)

7/25/2017

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Rearing notes for gulf fritillary larvae (Agraulis vanillae) found on passionflower (Passiflora) in Albany, California.

Rearing notes 7/20/17-7/25/17:

7/25:

One of the larvae is missing, so it probably ran somewhere in the tent to pupate

7/24:

7/23:

Looking to be almost done here

7/22:

Looking almost done here; the fifth instar larvae are very thick and shiny

7/21:

These are growing incredibly fast, even outside where it is much cooler than inside on average, typical of these nymphalids

7/20:

The fourth instar has molted to fifth
We found an old fifth instar larva on the potted passionflower (Passiflora). . . not sure how we were able to miss it all these days; these just must be very good at hiding seeing as we couldn't find the fourth instar before for several days

Authors
Brian Liang

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Agraulis vanillae Rearing Notes (7/12/17-7/19/17)

7/19/2017

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Rearing notes for gulf fritillary larvae (Agraulis vanillae) found on passionflower (Passiflora) in Albany, California.

Rearing notes 7/12/17-7/19/17:

7/19:

One of the two has entered apolysis for fifth and looks very shiny, tight, and light in color

7/18:

We found the smaller larva today which we must have just overlooked for all these days. . .

7/17:

7/16:

As it feeds and gets plumper, the orange portions get larger

7/15:

The larva has molted to fourth instar and is a lot darker in color and has longer spikes

7/14:

Unfortunately, we can only find one of the two larvae (the older one); there was a wasp in the tent earlier that attacked a promethea (Callosamia promethea) fourth instar so it may have also taken the missing one
The remaining larva is in apolysis for fourth instar

7/12:

Found two third instar larvae (one newly molted, one near the end of the instar) on our potted passionflower (Passiflora)
See Found Two Gulf Fritillary Third Instars

Authors
Brian Liang

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Found Two Gulf Fritillary Third Instars

7/12/2017

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Today we found two third instar gulf fritillary (Agraulis vanillae) larvae on our potted passionflower vine (Passiflora).

They are rare now, but still here. Today we saw a gulf fritillary fly into our yard and decided to check our potted passionflower vine (Passiflora) for eggs. However, the vine was placed in a shaded corner by the fence (to make room for the Papilio rutulus tent) so it must not have seen it because we were not able to find any eggs. However, to our surprise we did find two third instar larvae that must have came from eggs laid perhaps two weeks ago that we overlooked. Once of them looked like it had just molted because it was sitting on a vine with a head capsule next to it.

For now we have kept the larvae on the potted passionflower since it is such a nice place for them to live. To protect them, we put the plant into the tent.

Authors
Brian Liang

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Caught a Gulf Fritillary

7/4/2017

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We caught a male gulf fritillary (Augraulis vanillae) along the Ohlone Greenway Trail (El Cerrito, California).

These past years it seems that the number of gulf fritillary's has declined a lot. We remember about a decade ago when we would see them flying around everywhere and could catch them by the handful while they were nectaring. Three years ago, when we first started hunting for eggs and larvae, we were surprised at how common they were. Basically any passionflower (Passiflora) vine anywhere would be clobbered in the eggs. But more recently, it has been getting extremely hard to find them.

Today we caught a male patrolling the passionflower along the Ohlone Greenway Trail in El Cerrito, California. It was the only one there and we could not find a single egg or larvae on the passionflower. Even last year, we could sometimes see as many of three of them patrolling the place and were able to pick up a few eggs.

Authors
Brian Liang

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Agraulis vanillae L1 Rearing Notes (4/3/17-4/??/17)

4/9/2017

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Rearing notes for our gulf fritillary (Agraulis vanillae) first instar larvae. These originated from eggs laid by a female caught here in Albany, CA, that was placed in an flight cage with a potted passion vine (Passiflora) for oviposition.

Rearing Notes 4/3/17-4/??/17:

4/9:

After three harsh windy and rainy days, we finally tracked down one of the larva again, though unfortunately it looks like a lot of eggs and larva have been killed
The first instar looks more orange than before but doesn't look too much larger; probably didn't do much during the past few rainy days

4/6:

Extremely windy and rainy weather today caused the passion vine to be knocked over (not to mention power outage), and some eggs and larvae were almost certainly killed; we can't even find the lara we have been tracking the past few days

4/5:

Thorax looks slightly thicker and entire body is slightly greenish now; didn't eat much today so probably ready for apolysis

4/4:

The newborn larva that we photographed yesterday is still on the same leaf as yesterday; here it is again above
The larva is now slightly larger and is greenish around the thorax from feeding on the foliage

4/3:

At least one of the eggs have hatched already, as there are empty egg shells
One is shown above that wandered around the vine and soon began feeding on the epidermal layers of the leaf; it is not yet big enough to make complete holes
The neonate larva actually resembles the mature larva quite a bit when examined close up, as it already reddish with black scoli, though its body is somewhat translucent
The female laid many more eggs again and seems to become more and more careless of were it oviposits, as there are eggs laid all over the screen and in random places all over the plant

Authors
Alan Liang

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Agraulis vanillae Egg Rearing Notes (3/28/17-4/2/17)

4/3/2017

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Rearing notes for our gulf fritillary (Agraulis vanillae) eggs laid by a wild caught female that has been placed in an flight cage with a potted passion vine (Passiflora) for oviposition.

Rearing Notes 3/28/17-4/2/17:

4/2:

Oldest eggs are now a dark brown and are likely close to hatching
The temperature was quite high today (26°C in afternoon) and the female was very cooperative, laying several eggs all over the passion vine and on the screen of the cage; one leaf was covered in eggs by the end of the day (shown above)

3/30:

The oldest eggs have begun to darken in color, becoming mottled in a orange-brown band
The female was more cooperative today and laid a few more eggs, though it wasn't quite as warm today so it didn't begin flying until mid-afternoon; tomorrow should be hotter so we'll see if the warmth will help

3/29:

Took the female out of the dark, fed it very well with honey-water solution, and placed it into the flight cage with the potted passion vine in the afternoon; it seemed much more acclimated to captivity at first, as it was very tame while drinking and cooperatively oviposited a few times in the beginning, but eventually began wildly trying to escape again for much of the afternoon, only laying a few eggs on the screen of the cage

3/28:

See Gulf Fritillary Oviposits on Our Passion Vine

Authors
Alan Liang

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Gulf Fritillary Oviposits on Our Passion Vine

3/29/2017

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A gulf fritillary (Agraulis vanillae) visited our potted passion vine (Passiflora sp.) and began ovipositing on it.

Right as we returned from school, a medium sized butterfly flew right over our heads as we walked into our yard. A few moments later, it swooped back down and began circling our potted passion vine - it could've only been a gulf fritillary. Despite being a recently established species in California, the gulf fritillary has made it relatively short presence well known, as it is one of the most common butterflies in our locality. It is a member of the Heliconiinae, belonging to the tribe as the the well-known Central and South American longwings (Heliconius) that all utilize Passiflora as the sole larval host. Thus, we knew for certain that the butterfly was here to lay eggs on our passion vine.

We watched it for a moment as it landed and curled its abdomen to oviposit, then flew over to our lilac flowers to take a sip, and then flew back to our passion vine for more laying. In order to obtain a good number of eggs, we quickly caged the butterfly around the potted plant. Since it had not yet been acclimated to captivity yet, it flew about wildly for the remainder of the afternoon trying to escape and only laid a few more eggs on the screen of the cage. The total number of eggs including those and the ones laid on the plant was less than a dozen, but it was a good start. When evening came, we took the butterfly in and gave a good sip of honey-water solution, sealed it in a zip-lock bag, and placed it in a dark cabinet to acclimate it to captivity. We plan on keeping it at least for a few days in order to get a decent amount of eggs which we will rear directly on the potted passion vine.

It really took us by surprise to see this butterfly show up so abruptly at our doorsteps at this time of year as we usually have to go out to the Ohlone Greenway passion vines in summer and spend a long time to net them. It must be one of the first in flight this year, and one of the first butterflies to be in flight around here in general. It just recently began to warm up around here (20-25°C), so the higher temperatures will definitely cause a lot of butterflies to start showing up soon.

Authors
Alan Liang

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A. vanillae Rearing Notes (8/7/16-8/15/16)

8/15/2016

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The fifth installment of our rearing notes for the Gulf Fritillary (Augraulis vannilae) from 8/7-8/15 obtained from both wild caught and captive produced eggs.

Rearing Notes 8/7-8/15:

8/15:

Did not work; the female mysteriously died once again

8/14:

Going to try this ovipositing thing one last time
Caught one of our last butterflies emerging

8/13:

Found a mating pair on our apple tree; it is highly likely the female in the pair was one that we released and we caught her back

8/12:

The females won't lay eggs; it probably takes some time but we don't want to risk having them die on us for no reason so we released them

8/11:

Caught another female nectaring at a garden; put it in the same enclosure as the other one

8/10:

Caught another female in our front yard; put it in a jar with ventilated lid to oviposit

8/9:

Can't get the female to lay eggs; it eventually died despite the ventilated enclosure and feeding

8/8:

Caught a wild female that we have put in an ovipositing enclosure with passionflower (Passiflora)

8/7:

The last of the captive produced egg formed chrysalises are emerging

- Brian

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