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LinkedInPosts Tagged: gulf fritillary
Gulf Fritillaries Doing Well
The Gulf Fritillary, Agraulis vanillae, is definitely back from a comeback, at least in the Sacramento, Davis and Vacaville-Fairfield areas. In September of 2009, butterfly guru Art Shapiro, now a UC Davis distinguished professor emeritus, excitedly announced the...
Gulf Fritillary, Agraulis vanillae, foraging on a zinnia in a Vacaville garden. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
The Shadow Knows, But What Does It Know?
Find beauty not only in the thing itself but in the pattern of the shadows, the light and dark which that thing provides.---JunichiroTanizaki (1886-1965), Japanese author. The shadow knows, but what does it know? It knows to follow. It follows the Gulf Fritillary--a brightly colored orange...
The Gulf Fritillary, a brightly colored orange and black butterfly, casts a distinctive shadow. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
Up and away...the butterfly and the shadow begin to vanish. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
The Butterfly Egg: The Promise of a New Generation
Ever seen a Gulf Fritillary laying an egg? The Gulf Frit, or "passion butterfly" (Agraulis vanillae), lays her tiny, yellow eggs, singly, on her host plant, the passionflower vine (Passiflora). The egg? It's about the size of a pin head. Look closely and you'll see it's ridged like the...
The adult Gulf Fritillary butterfly is a brilliant orange, with silver-spangled underwings. This one is nectaring on a Mexican petunia in a Vacaville garden. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
A Gulf Fritillary laying an egg on a tendril of a passionflower vine in a Vacaville garden. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
Blanket Flower: the Picture of Autumn
If you've been ignoring your calendar, you may have not realized that autumn began Sept. 23. We know it as the season between summer and winter, when days grow shorter, when liquidambar leaves turn red, and when the blanket flower lives up to its name. The blanket flower,...
A Gulf Fritillary, Agraulis vanillae, clings to a blanket flower, Gaillardia. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
What Good Is a Butterfly?
In his fascinating book, "Life on a Little-Known Planet: A Biologist's View of Insects and Their World," Connecticut-born biologist/entomologist Howard Ensign Evans (1919-2002) asks "What good is a butterfly?" "To the farmer, it is an adult cabbage worm or carrot caterpillar, and...
A tattered Gulf Fritillary sipping nectar from a zinnia in a Vacaville, Calif., garden. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
A Gulf Fritillary laying an egg on her host plant, Passiflora. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
A Gulf Fritillary showing rejection toward a mate after laying an egg on the tendrils of a passionflower vine. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
