Gulf Fritillary Butterfly

This is one of the smaller Butterflies that visit my yard. When it first flits by it doesn’t grab your attention like the Swallowtails. But take a picture and really look at it.

Look at the beautiful pattern on the underside of the wing.

They are even more striking with the sun shining through the wings. I think there is some sort of wasp  just over the right wing. It kept landing where ever the butterfly did and chasing it off. I don’t think it is a Honey Bee. The wings are longer than the body.

Here’s a better look at the underside. It looks like it was painted on.

I wish I had been able to get a better picture of the body. That has a unique paint job too.

My bottlebrush bushes are very popular with the butterflies, bees, wasps and hummingbirds. Oh, and don’t forget that beautiful  Eastern Amberwing dragonfly, in an earlier post. She sat on the budded tip of the bush for quite a long time.

 

I posted this photo, not for the Butterfly itself, but for the color combination of the Butterfly and the Honey Bee. They seem to be working in harmony.