Re: monarch butterflies


This could be the Gulf Fritillary, Agraulis vanillae incarnata. This is a
large butterfly, more orange than a swallowtail (sometimes reddish orange),
with silver spots on the underside of the wings. It doesn't have tails like
the swallowtails, though. The Gulf Fritillary uses Passiflora species for
the larval food plant, and used to be scarce north of Santa Barbara. Since
so many Passifloras are now in cultivation, the range for this butterfly
has been greatly extended, as far north as Redding. We see them in our
garden, even though we have no passion flowers ourselves. Early in the fall
one nectared for quite a while on a species dahlia.

Carol Manahan
Richmond, California, on San Francisco Bay

responding to:

>I don't really know butterflies, but what I believe to be a species of
>swallowtail is attracted to Passiflora.  I have a large expanse of Passiflora
>covering a fence and a dead tree, and it is always covered with what I believe
>to be swallowtails.
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