Ovipositing Fritillaries and Mating American Coppers!

[Williamson, Craig]

We have been watching the same Great Spangled Fritillary ovipositing on VIolets in our back yard every day since September 18th. We have seen the abdomen bend down to the surface of violet leaves as well as down to the soil beneath and around the Violets. See photos here. 

This morning there was an Aphrodite Fritillary ovipositing on the same Violets! Valerie got the best photos of the Aphrodite ovipositing - see her third photo here:

In a previous post I asked whether different species of fritillaries use different species of Violets to oviposit since we have almost all Great Spangled here and few Aphrodite or Atlantis, yet I know others nearby get all three fritillary species. We'll have to see what happens next year and whether the eggs hatch and survive and we see more Aphrodites here, but it appears different species of fritillaries can use the same violet species, which we believe is the Common Blue Violet.

We also saw a pair of mating American Coppers this morning (see photos here and here), and yesterday and today a Red Admiral (see photo here). 

The butterflies are still active - be sure to get out in the warm weather the next few days!

Craig Williamson and Valerie Burns