People who are not very familiar with butterflies frequently mistake fritillaries for their more famous distant cousins the
monarch butterflies.
Most are orange and black like the monarchs, but with a different
pattern. They are as attractive and
their life histories are perhaps just as interesting, although they do
not migrate to Mexico.
Caterpillars hatch in the fall and go to sleep right away
without feeding. They sleep through the winter and will only awaken in
the spring at the same time as violet plants begin to grow. The timing
is important to the hungry caterpillar. It is feared that global
warming may disrupt this synchronization; this would prove catastrophic
to fritillary caterpillars. They do not go for milkweeds as do
monarchs; they prefer violets instead. Without violets, there would be
no fritillaries.
The adults, on the other hand are thirsty for nectar
of many native flowers, such as mints, butterfly weed, common milkweed,
Joe-pye-weed and others; but they do not hesitate to visit some
non-native flowers such as lilacs, butterfly bush and some thistles. In
general they prefer long tubular flowers, but they can also use some
easy to reach, more open flowers.
The common name comes from a Latin word,
fritillus,
which means chessboard or dice box.
Fritillary is also the name of a
flower with an interesting checkered pattern; it is obvious that both
the flower and the butterfly get their common name because of such
pattern. Another name for these handsome butterflies is silverspots
because of the metallic markings on their wings undersides. It is
possible that this pattern, similar to a leopard’s spots, serves as
camouflage when they are resting in places of dappled sun and shade
spots.
The females emit an enticing aroma called a pheromone that
attracts males. The adults mate in the summer; afterwards
females may take a nap of a few weeks, called diapause. They emerge from
diapause in late summer and lay their eggs near patches of violets.
Female great spangled fritillaries seem to be able to find the violets
even after they have wilted and blown away. It is possible that they
can smell the roots of violets. Curiously, females of other species of
fritillaries do not appear to be terribly careful about finding the
presence of violets; they seem to choose shaded, weedy places that are
likely to favor the growth of violets, thus many eggs are lost when the
larvae search in vain for their food and cannot find it. These mothers
can afford to be careless because they lay as many as two thousand
eggs, so it does not matter if many are lost.
Article from: http://www.fs.fed.us/wildflowers/pollinators/pollinator-of-the-month/fritillary.shtml
and Thank you Lynn for sharing more of your
wonderful photos! If anyone would like to share a
photograph of nature send it to bloubird@gmail.com
Related Articles:
Fritillaria meleagris flowers http://goo.gl/ysPN3n
Lifecycle of Monarch Butterflies http://goo.gl/8dTiBz
Plant some milkweed http://goo.gl/8s6F1d
Monarch migration route http://goo.gl/L66ty
Punctuation Butterflies: The First Butterfly of Spring! http://bit.ly/JHUpG1
