That "passion butterfly," the Gulf Fritillary...
Ever watched a Gulf Fritillary, Agraulis vanillae, touch down on its host plant, the passionflower vine, Passiflora?
Ever seen two Gulf Frits sipping nectar from a single passionflower blossom?
We remember what UC Davis Distinguished Professor Emeritus Art Shapiro said about the Gulf Frit when he recently addressed the Vacaville Museum Guild. Shapiro, who retired in 2023 but not from his research, has monitored the butterfly populations of northern and central Caliornia since 1972 and he and his team maintain a research website, Art's Butterfly World.
Shapiro said neither the butterfly nor its host plant is native. “This butterfly entered California about 1875 with the railroad from the east. It entered the Bay Area spontaneously about 1910 and has been present in the Bay Area ever since. When I came to California, it had a toehold in Sacramento and Davis gardens, but it's extremely frost sensitive, and in the ‘70s it got frozen out completely and went extinct in this whole area inland. It reappeared in eastern Sacramento County, about 2011 or 2012, and has spread like wildfire. It's now north to Redding and up to Grass Valley, so it has occupied a huge area very quickly, and seems to be very happy."
Very happy, indeed.
Sometimes folks call it "the passion butterfly."
