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Sticker of Gulf fritillary
Bug card No. 2140 of 4,939

Gulf fritillary

Dione vanillae
Eats: Nectar and pollenButterfliesGardens and meadows6 legs

The gulf fritillary is a bright orange butterfly with long, narrow wings and black stripes. Underneath, its wings are brown with shiny silver spots. Its spiky orange caterpillars live on passion flower vines.

Lives in
The southern United States and through the Americas down to Argentina, in sunny gardens, parks and grassland
Wingspan
6.5 to 9.5 cm (2.6 to 3.7 in)
Top speed
about 19 km/h (12 mph)
Flying, estimate
Can it hurt you?
Harmless
Harmless. If a bird comes near, it gives off a bad smell, but this cannot hurt you.
What does it eat?
The butterflies drink nectar from many flowers, like lantana. The caterpillars eat only the leaves of passion flower vines.
For real!Photo of Gulf fritillary
Picture by Korall. CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons.

How big is it?

How wide are its wings?

Gulf fritillary wings about 9.5 cm tip to tip (3.7 in)A toy building brick about 3.2 cm (1.3 in)A crayon about 9 cm (3.5 in)A banana about 18 cm (7.1 in)
wings as wide as 3 toy building brickscould fly across a whole football pitch in 20 seconds

How big is Gulf fritillary compared to YOU?

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How fast is it?

cool stuff

Fun facts

1

Birds learn to leave it alone, because it lets out a stinky smell when danger is near.

2

Its scientific name comes from a painting from 1705 that showed it on a vanilla plant. Later people found out the caterpillars never eat vanilla.

3

The eggs start out yellow and turn brownish red in just one day.

4

Newly hatched caterpillars eat their own egg shells as their first meal.

5

The females are bigger and darker than the males.

you asked

Most asked questions about Gulf fritillary

?What do gulf fritillary caterpillars eat?

Only the leaves of passion flower vines. That is why people plant these vines in butterfly gardens.

?How big is a gulf fritillary?

Its wings are about 6.5 to 9.5 centimetres from tip to tip.

?Where does the gulf fritillary live?

In the warm south of the United States and all the way down to Argentina. People also brought it to Hawaii.

For bug experts

Scientific name
Dione vanillae
Named by
Linnaeus, 1758
Group
Butterflies
Family
Nymphalidae
Classification
Insecta > Lepidoptera > Nymphalidae
Lives on
North America, South America, Australia and Oceania
Also known as
Passion butterfly

Where the facts come from

  1. Gulf fritillary (Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0): what it looks like, where it lives, what it eats, sizes and fun facts, retold in simple words.
  2. Picture by Korall. CC BY-SA 3.0, Wikimedia Commons. The sticker of this bug is drawn from this picture.

If we got something wrong, sorry, we are bug fans, not a science journal. Tell us at [email protected] and we will fix it.

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