Date: 08/26/2004

Number: 1

One early sign of fall I see every year in my butterfly garden is when the Great Spangled Fritillaries start courting. The Fritillaris have been absent for about a month which seems to happen late July to mid August only to reappear toward the last week in August. Yesterday, I saw and photographed a female being courted by a male on a small bare patch of dirt in my lawn. This behavior went on for about 10 minutes with the male standing behind the female, keeping a distance of about one to two inches, with the male adjusting his angle parallel to the female from behind each time she moved. In the next few weeks I would expect to see female Great Spangled Fritillaries ovipositing their eggs on the ground by walking through a patch of violets (their larval food plant) I keep for them.

Stoughton, MA

Latitude: 42.1 Longitude: -71.1

Observed by: Frank
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