Happy Mystery Monday! Can you guess what is pictured in photo #1?
The answer to last week’s mystery is variegated fritillary butterfly, Euptoieta claudia, pictured in photo #2.
The variegated fritillary butterfly, Euptoieta claudia, is a wide-ranging butterfly found across most of the United States. Its name comes from the intricate pattern of orange, brown, and white scales on its wings. “Fritillary” is derived from the Latin fritillus, meaning a chessboard or dice box, while the metallic markings beneath the wings have also earned these butterflies the name “silver spots.”
Variegated fritillaries migrate north from the South each Spring, with Maryland near the northern edge of their Summer range. Adults visit the nectar-rich flowers of mountain mints, butterfly weed, milkweed, Joe-pye weed, and many other plants. They rarely seem to sit still, fluttering continuously among flowers and producing two or three generations during the season.
After mating, females may enter a short Summer dormancy called diapause before emerging in late Summer to lay eggs near patches of violets. A single female can produce as many as 2,000 eggs, and the caterpillars, sometimes called pansyworms, feed on violets growing throughout gardens and natural areas. Even the chrysalis puts on a show, decorated with gleaming knobs that appear to have been plated in solid gold.
Mystery Monday is sponsored by the Spy Newspapers and Adkins Arboretum.
