Unlike other Fritillaries, that exclusively use native Violets as their host plant, the Variegated Fritillary depends on many plants as its host plant including those Violets and also Passion Vine, Pansy, Purslane, Mayapple, Flax, and others.

The Variegated Fritillary has a “long” life as an adult compared to some other butterflies, living between two and ten weeks. Some portion of those weeks as a butterfly are spent nectaring at flowers such as Asters, Common Milkweed, Dogbane, Thistles, Coneflowers, Tithonia, and Ironweed.

Variegated Fritillaries are found in South and North America, in moist meadows and woodland edges.

Creamy white, reddish-orange, metallic blue with shiny black hairy spines. Here with the typical Fritillary host plant, a native Violet leaf. So many caterpillars are amazing. This is one of them!