Gulf Fritillary Oviposits on Our Passion Vine

3/29/2017

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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