Variegated Fritillary Butterfly (Euptoieta claudia) in the Nymphalidae family appears to enjoy the nectar laden inflorescences of a Purple Milkweed (Asclepias purpurascens) on another beautiful Southeastern Kansas morning. Variegated Fritillary Butterflies are tawny orange to bright orange in color with thick black vein line markings and black dots along the wing margins. The Variegated Fritillary Butterflies wing span can be up to 3 inches and the species food sources have included a variety of milkweeds, peppermint, red clover, dogbanes and tickseed sunflowers. Variegated Fritillary Butterflies have been reported throughout the central, southern and eastern continental United States with the rare exception in the Pacific northwestern areas. Females lay a single green egg on the underneath side of leaves and stems of host plants like Maypops or Purple Passionflowers (Passiflora incarnate), May Apples (Podophyllum peltata), Violets (Viola), Purslanes (Portulaca), Mooseeds (Menispermum) and Stonecrops (Sedum) 3 to 4 times a year depending on whether they are in the Northern or Southern areas of the U.S.. Once hatched, the caterpillars feed on the leaves of the host plants where the eggs where originally laid. Chrysalis or cocoons can appear as silvery to silvery light metallic in color, dawning a variety of black spots and light orange to gold spike like protrusions or knobs along the dorsal or back side of the cocoon. The species is not contiguous to the continental U.S. and also inhabits Cuba, Jamaica, Mexico, Argentina and also Central America.
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