Three Butterflies

Florida has so many beautiful butterflies, and many of them can be found in other states and countries. Today, we'll look at three of them: The eastern black swallowtail, Gulf fritillary, and the red-spotted purple.

Eastern Black Swallowtail

I saw this eastern black swallowtail in a park on a beautiful day, where it was resting on these grasses in the breeze. Besides being beautiful, eastern black swallowtails have a claim to fame: they are Oklahoma's state butterfly!^[1] The 1996 bill that made them so noted their important role as pollinators as well as their beauty.^[2] They are found far beyond Oklahoma though, from Canada down into South America.^[1] This includes most of the United states, though, as their name suggests, they are more common in the east.^[1] 

If you want to attract eastern black swallowtails, a good way to begin is to start planting! They like to lay eggs on their plants in the carrot family, and as caterpillars, they'll eat things like dill, celery, carrots, and parsley.^[1,3] Who knows, you might even be able to see a family of them, since one year can see up to three generations of these butterflies.^[4] 

As they grow into butterflies, eastern black swallowtails have a few tricks up their sleeve to keep themselves safe. Their eggs start out yellow, but as the baby caterpillar inside matures, the eggs turn black with a patch of white.^[3] This helps them blend in, since it looks like bird poop.^[3] So perhaps in an indirect way, the birds are a "bestie" to this butterfly. Once the caterpillars break out of the eggs, they no longer have to rely purely on this disguise—they are ready to defend themselves. If irritated, they can produce horn-like structures from their heads that can put out a stinky liquid.^[3] It's neat that these little butterflies have so many unique ways to protect themselves as they grow.

Common Name: Eastern black swallowtail butterfly

Scientific Name: Papilio polyxenes

Order: Lepidoptera

Family: Papilionidae

Month Seen:  September '25

Gulf Fritillary

A Gulf fritillary enjoying the pentas.

The Gulf fritillary is a happy looking orange butterfly who likes to travel. They are migratory, getting their name because they sometimes fly over the Gulf, and they can be found in the southern United States all the way down into Argentina.^[5] In the spring, they'll migrate up to the northern edge of their range, then travel back down to the Gulf coast and southward beginning around the late summer.^[6] They can be found in Florida all year long.^[6]

Planting flowers (surprise!) is a good way to attract Gulf fritillaries. They'll drink the nectar of verbenas, tickseeds, asters, and lantanas.^[7,8] The two pictured here are enjoying the pentas and beggarticks. However, one flower is truly close to the Gulf fritillary's heart: the passionflower. Purple, corkystem, and yellow passionflower are all host plants, with purple passionflower being where they lay their eggs the most.^[6,9] It is a funky, pretty, and cool looking flower. It also helps helps protect them, since as the caterpillars eat the passionflower, the chemicals from the plant make them taste bad to predators, even later on when they transform into butterflies.^[9] 

If you plant passionflower and look for the chrysalis, look close, and look around! Sometimes they won't make their chrysalis directly on the plant they've been eating; this helps them avoid predators who may be attracted to the smell of damaged plants.^[9] Their chrysalis also looks like a dead leaf.^[10] They'll stay in the chrysalis for 5-12 days.^[11] After they emerge, they'll spend the next 2-4 weeks flying around.^[11] If you plant some of the flowers above, maybe you'll see some in your own garden!

Common Name: Gulf Fritillary

Scientific Name: Agraulis vanillae

Order: Lepidoptera

Family: Nymphalidae

Month Seen:  September '25

 

A Gulf fritillary on some beggarticks flowers.

Red-Spotted Purple

A red-spotted purple sitting on some leaves. Look at that blue!

 

This butterfly's name surprised me. When I saw it resting on these leaves, I thought it was stunning, but I would not have guessed its name was a "red-spotted purple." Brilliant blue is what stands out to me. Instead, their name pays homage to their more subtle features. Orange spots can be found on their wings when they close them (some sites say the spots are orange; others say red-orange).^[12,13] There are also a few on the corner of their top wing.^[14] Look closely at tip of the right wing of the butterfly in the photo and you'll see two orange spots. And while I don't see it on most photos, there are a few photos online where I can sort of see some faint shades of purple in the wings—maybe it depends on the lighting. Thus, we have the "red-spotted purple."

Red-spotted purple butterflies have unique food choices. You might occasionally see one drinking from a flower, but the adult butterflies like to feed on sap, fruit, and (I promise I'm not making this up) animal poop.^{[15, 16]} Their host plants are more typical: black cherry, deerberry, and the Carolina willow.^[13,15]

When it comes to protecting itself, the red spotted purple relies on deception. As caterpillars, they are streaked with white, which makes them look suspiciously like bird droppings.^[16, 17] As you might guess, this helps deters predators looking for a snack. As adult butterflies, they take on a new disguise: they look very similar to pipevine swallowtails, which are toxic.^[16] Unlike those butterflies, red-spotted purples do not have elongated tails, which can help you tell them apart. Hopefully their predators aren't looking that close!

Another interesting thing about red-spotted purples is that they hibernate.^[16] If a caterpillar is not finished growing by the time winter rolls around, it builds itself a leaf tube called a hibernacula and hangs out there until the weather warms up.^[13,16] During this time, its water content drops dramatically to help it not get hurt from freezing.^[16] Like all of the butterflies we've talked about today, I think it's so cool how something so beautiful and fragile looking has so many inventive ways to survive.   

Common Name: Red-spotted Purple 

Scientific Name: Limenitis arthemis arthemis

Order: Lepidoptera

Family:  Nymphalidae

Month Seen:  March '25

Learn More About These Butterflies: 

     Eastern Black Swallowtail

1. The University of Wisconsin–Madison Division of Extension. (n.d.). Black swallowtail, Papilio polyxenes.
2.  Oklahoma Historical Society. (n.d.). Oklahoma symbols. [Note: The section about the bill quotes from 23 OS § 98.5]
3.  Wixted, K., Maryland Department of Natural Resources. (2016). HabiChat Summer 2016. HabiChat, 21(2), 1-10.
4. Florida Museum. (n.d.). Black swallowtail, eastern.  
   
   Gulf Fritillary
5.  Texas Parks and Wildlife Department. (n.d.). A closer look at...
   Gulf fritillary Butterflies (the genus Castilleja).
6. Daniels, J. C. (2016). Gulf fritillary butterfly, Agraulis vanillae (Linnaeus) (Insecta: Lepidoptera: Nymphalidae) (Publication No. EENY 423). Ask IFAS.   
7. National Park Service. (2020, January 7). Gulf fritillary: Gulf Islands National Seashore. 
8. Schrader, K. (2024). Attract Gulf fritillary butterflies with their favorite plants. Birds & Blooms. 
9. Layton, B. (2023). Gulf fritillary. Bugs Eye View, 9(27).  
10. Florida Wildflower Foundation. (n.d.). Gulf fritillary.  
11. Stokes, D., & Stokes, L., & Williams, E. (1991). The butterfly book: An easy guide to butterfly gardening, identification, and behavior. Little, Brown, and Company. 
    
    Red-Spotted Purple
12. UF/IFAS Center for Land Use Efficiency. (n.d.). Blue butterflies. Gardening Solutions. 
13. Alabama Butterfly Atlas. (n.d.). Red-spotted purple: Limenitis arthemis astyanax.
14. Alabama Butterfly Atlas. (n.d.). Red-spotted purple.  
15. Florida Museum. (n.d.). Red-spotted purple: Limenitis arthemis astyanax.
16. Missouri Department of Conservation. (n.d.). Red-spotted purple. 
17. Hall, D. W., & Butler, J. F. (2025, December 17). Red-spotted purple Limenitis (=Basilarchia) arthemis astyanax (Fabricius) (Insecta: Lepidoptera: Nymphalidae: Limenitidinae) (Publication No. EENY447). AskIFAS.