Butterfly photos:
Silver Spotted Skipper – (Epargyreus clarus)
On wild iris – Iris versicolor
Silver Spotted Skippers are common summer butterflies. They’re the largest and showiest of the skippers we have in the northern midwest. One generation a year in the north – they overwinter as a pupa and the adults emerge in spring. The caterpillars eat legumes – plants in the pea family.
Newly laid egg
Egg about to hatch
Egg about to hatch
newly hatched caterpillar
small caterpillar’s leaf shelter
caterpillar in leaf shelter (pulled apart so I could see inside)
older caterpillar
older caterpillar
pupa
pupa – rolled in and attached to a leaf
pupa – rolled in and attached to a leaf
pupa
Newly emerged adult
Newly emerged adult
adult – tops of wings
adult – side view
adult
Great Spangled Fritillary – (Speyeria cybele)
Great Spangled Fritillaries are common summer butterflies in the Midwest. Their caterpillars eat violet leaves and flowers. Females lay eggs near – not on – violet plants in late summer or fall. When the tiny caterpillars hatch, they hide under leaf litter until spring, when they search out nearby violet plants to eat.
adult
adult
adults on Butterflyweed
caterpillar on Bird’s Foot Violet
chrysalis
Eastern Comma (Polygonia comma)
Eastern Commas are one of the first butterflies we see in the spring and the last we see in the fall. They spend the winter as adults, sheltering in brush piles or behind loose bark. The caterpillars eat nettles, hops or elm.
This is a caterpillar on Stinging Nettle.
a caterpillar preparing to make its chrysalis
the chrysalis
adult Eastern Comma – on November 2! If the air is warm and there are patches of sun, these butterflies will be out.
The white comma shaped mark on the underside of the wing gives the butterfly its name.
