Strange weather we're having here in Central California.

After soaring into the 90s, the temperatures pushed again into the 80s today (Oct.21). The Gulf Fritillaries (Agraulis vanillae) are "making the most-est" of their host plant, passionflower vines. Blossoms keep popping up like so much popcorn. And the Gulf Frits are there to lay their eggs all over the plant, including the  tendrils, leaves, stems and blossoms.

The showy reddish-orange butterfly with the silver-spangled wings is a favorite this time of year. It's sort of like a Halloween gift before Thanksgiving.

We remember when it vanished in the Sacramento-Davis area and was even considered extinct around here in the early 1970s.

Butterfly expert Art Shapiro, distinguished professor of evolution and ecology at the University of California, Davis, sounded the alarm back then. He knows its history well.

“It first appeared in the vicinity of San Diego in the 1870s,” he told us.  “It spread through Southern California in urban settings and was first recorded in the Bay Area about 1908. It became a persistent breeding resident in the East and South Bay in the 1950s and has been there since.”

Since 2000, the Gulf Frit has been recolonizing again throughout the area. Thankfully!

The butterfly lays its eggs only on passionflower vines (genus Passiflora)--lots of eggs--so expect the caterpillars to skeletonize the plant. It's a good idea to offer some nearby nectar for the adults, too. Their favorites include the butterfly bush, Mexican sunflower (Tithonia) and lantana. 

Let's see, fall began Sept. 23, and winter arrives Dec. 21.

For the Gulf Frits, it might as well be spring!

It's delightful to see the gray hairstreak.

We're not talking about the gray streaks in our hair as we age (to perfection, of course!).

We're talking about the gray hairstreak, a common gray butterfly found throughout the United States, coast to coast, as well as parts of Canada and Mexico. Entomologists describe Strymon melinus as a small gray butterfly with a wingspan of from 2.6 to 3.65 centimeters. It is distinguished by its black-eyed orange spot at the base of its hindwing tails. It also has a small patch of blue before the tail, and two broken crossbands of black and white spots. 

You may have seen it nectaring on a variety of plants. Indeed, it's considered one of the most polyphagous of butterflies. It works such flowers as  sunflowers, lantana, clover, cosmos, mallows, and the like.  In abundance, the larvae can become pests of cotton, peas, corn, corn, hops and other commercial agricultural crops. Cotton farmers call the larvae the "cotton square borer." The insect, however, is a pollinator more than it is a pest.

Perched on a flower with its wings up, the gray hairstreak resembles a sailboat. 

It's on a winning steak. It flies fast, skillfully avoiding birds bent on a quick meal. It's a winner in other ways, too:

• it's abundant; not endangered.
• It's gray, but colorful.  
• It's a flexible eater, not picky.

Read what Art Shapiro, UC Davis distinguished professor of evolution and ecology, says about the butterfly on his website.

Privacy, please!

You're walking by a patch of lavender and Mexican sunflower (Tithonia) and you notice that two Gulf Fritillaries (Agraulis vanillae) are doing what birds 'n' bees 'n butterflies do.

Well, some folks call it "bug porn" and some call it a "two-for" images--two insects in one photo. But in this case, this was a "three-for" image. A honey bee nectaring on the nearby lavender photobombed my image and the mating pair, still attached, clumsily fluttered off in a four-wing attempt.  Appropriately enough, they headed over to the pasionflower vine, their host plant

We recall butterfly expert Art Shapiro, distinguished professor of evolution and ecology at the University of California, Davis, telling us several years ago that the  showy reddish-orange butterfly  is making a comeback in the Sacramento-Davis area. In the early 1970s, it was considered extinct in that area.

“It first appeared in the vicinity of San Diego in the 1870s,” he related in a previous Bug Squad blog. “It spread through Southern California in urban settings and was first recorded in the Bay Area about 1908. It became a persistent breeding resident in the East and South Bay in the 1950s and has been there since.”

Shapiro says it “apparently bred in the Sacramento area and possibly in Davis in the 1960s, becoming extinct in the early 1970s, then recolonizing again throughout the area since 2000.”

One of the Gulf Frit's favorite nectar sources is lantana (genus Lantana,  family Verbenaceae.) In our yard they also lean toward the lavender and Tithonia. 

There, on appropriate occasions, they like a little privacy.