Friday Butterfly Blogging: Gulf Fritillary

This is a Gulf Fritillary, Agraulis vanillae (Click the pic to enlarge), resting on a chrysanthemum. I took this picture in a flower bed in front of my house last weekend. I was not initially familiar with its identity so I had to refer to my handy insect identification manual from my college entomology course. Here is a page with a good description and a picture from the USGS.

The key Identifiers of this butterfly include the bright orange upperside with black markings and 3 black-encircled white dots on forewing leading edge.


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