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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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:
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![]() Authors Brian Liang 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:
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![]() Authors Brian Liang 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 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 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:
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![]() Authors Alan Liang 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:
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3/28: ![]() Authors Alan Liang 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 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:
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- Brian
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Timeline 2012–2017
Albany, California This timeline is a series of daily posts recording our observations on and experiences with various insects in Albany California and surrounding areas, from 2012-2017. Since we did not publish this site until 2016, posts before that were constructed retroactively. Starting in August 2017, we moved to Ithaca, New York; posts from there on can be viewed at Timeline 2017-present: Ithaca, New York. Archives (1,011)
August 2017 (49) July 2017 (121) June 2017 (79) May 2017 (77) April 2017 (91) March 2017 (35) February 2017 (12) January 2017 (10) December 2016 (12) November 2016 (26) October 2016 (49) September 2016 (84) August 2016 (94) July 2016 (99) June 2016 (53) May 2016 (21) April 2016 (4) January 2016 (1) August 2015 (3) July 2015 (3) June 2015 (2) June 2014 (3) May 2014 (1) April 2014 (3) March 2014 (3) December 2013 (2) November 2013 (2) October 2013 (5) September 2013 (11) August 2013 (15) July 2013 (9) June 2013 (5) May 2013 (4) April 2013 (3) March 2013 (2) February 2013 (3) January 2013 (2) December 2012 (2) November 2012 (1) October 2012 (2) September 2012 (2) August 2012 (5) July 2012 (1) June 2012 (1) Authors
![]() ![]() Full Species List (Alphabetical by scientific name) Note: - Not every species we encounter is necessarily presented on this site, rather a selection of those that were of particular interest to us and that we felt were worth documenting. - We can't guarantee that all species have been identified accurately, particularly taxa we are not as familiar with. Lepidoptera Actias luna Adelpha californica Agraulis vanillae Allancastria cerisyi Antheraea mylitta Antheraea polyphemus Anthocharis sara Argema mimosae Attacus atlas Battus philenor hirsuta Bombyx mori Caligo atreus Callosamia promethea Coenonympha tullia california Citheronia regalis Cricula trifenestrata Danaus plexippus Eacles imperialis Erynnis tristis Estigmene acrea Eumorpha achemon Eupackardia calleta Furcula cinereoides Heliconius erato Heliconius hecale Heliconius sapho Heliconius sara Hyalophora cecropia Hyalophora columbia Hyalophora euryalus Hylephila phyleus Hyles lineata Junonia coenia Langia zenzeroides formosana Lophocampa maculata Manduca sexta Morpho peleides Nymphalis antiopa Orgyia vetusta Orthosia hibisci quenquefasciata Pachysphinx modesta Papilio cresphontes Papilio eurymedon Papilio glaucus Papilio machaon oregonius Papilio multicaudata Papilio polyxenes asterius Papilio rumiko Papilio rutulus Papilio zelicaon Phyciodes mylitta Phyciodes pulchella Pieris rapae Plejebus acmon Poanes melane Polites sabuleti Polygonia satyrus Pyrgus communis Rothschildia jacobaeae Samia cynthia advena Samia ricini Smerinthus cerisyi Smerinthus ophthalmica Strymon melinus Trichoplusia ni Uresephita reversalis Vanessa annabella Vanessa atalanta Vanessa cardui Unidentified Lepidoptera Hybrids Papilio glaucus × Papilio rutulus Papilio polyxenes asterius × Papilio zelicaon Orthoptera Melanoplus devastator Phaneroptera nana Pristoceuthophilus pacificus Scudderia mexicana Trimerotropis pallidipennis Phasmatodea Carausius morosus Phyllium giganteum Mantodea Mantis religiosa Phyllocrania paradoxa Hymenoptera Apis mellifera Bombus vosnesenskii Brachymeria ovata Linepithema humile Pediobius sp. Polistes dominula Xylocopa varipuncta Unidentified Diptera Lucilia sericata Unidentified Hemiptera Brochymena sp. Leptoglossus sp. Nezara viridula Odonata Argia vivida Libellula croceipennis Coleoptera Coccinella septempunctata Cycloneda polita Diabrotica undecimpunctata Hippodamia convergens Araneae (Class: Arachnida) Araneus diadematus Phidippus johnsoni |