Hummingbird and Butterfly Gardening: Need more info/help to ID Passiflora cat-greater fritillary?, 1 by amarille

amarille wrote:
Hi guys,

I'm wondering if any of you might help me to figure this out. I have been raising butterflies for about 5 years now (Texas, zone 8b). Every year I get Gulf Fritillaries on my Passiflora "Incense" so ID-ing these guys is not an issue.

Now this year I also have small white eggs, caterpillars are similar to Gulf Fritillary cats but with white dots along the sides. The crysalis is very pretty and white metallic with dots. I saw the female that laid these eggs and she looked like a Greater Fritillary. I also have similar cats eating my Violas in the front container arrangement :). So I went to research Greater Fritillary and found that their host is Viola species, nothing about passion vine. So I am confused - are my cats on Passiflora also Greater Fritillary or not?
I know it's rather specific question, but I keep track of my releases and would like to tag these guys properly.

Thank you very much.


On the photo - mystery cat is on the left and Gulf Fritillary cat is on the right. And a mystery cat crysalis. A bit smaller in size than Gulf Fritillary crysalids. Eggs are smaller too - forgot to mention. Don't have a photo of eggs - all hatched now. Sorry for poor quality photos - I don't have a camera so have to use my phone for pictures :(.