- Author: Kathy Keatley Garvey
UC Davis distinguished professor Lynn Kimsey, director of the Bohart Museum of Entomology at the University of California, Davis, gets queries about two-headed butterflies.
A two-headed butterfly? A wonderful and surprising find of a new species? And suitable for publication in ZooKeys, that "peer-reviewed, open-access, rapidly disseminated journal launched to accelerate research and free information exchange in taxonomy, phylogeny, biogeography and evolution of animals?"
And a discovery guaranteed to bring fame and fortune, or at least worldwide headlines?
No, not a two-headed butterfly. Just a male and a female butterfly keeping busy.
This week we spotted a two-headed butterfly on a blanketflower, Gaillardia, in a Vacaville pollinator garden. The butterflies? Gulf Fritillaries. They're also known as "the passion butterflies," as their host plant is the passionflower vine, Passiflora.
Ah, the warmth of the sun, the autumn colors, a slight breeze, and two butterflies forming a two-headed butterfly.
Life doesn't get any better than that if you're a couple of butterflies seeking to create progeny--or a photographer engaging in "insect wedding photography."
The bride and groom didn't notice the camera. They were too busy keeping busy.
- Author: Kathy Keatley Garvey
Love is like a butterfly
A rare and gentle thing
--Love Is Like a Butterfly, Dolly Parton
When Dolly Parton penned her song, "Love Is Like a Butterfly," she probably wasn't thinking of passion butterflies, Gulf Fritillaries.
And when she sings that popular song, neither she nor her audience are thinking of Gulf Fritillaries (Agraulis vanillae), getting together on a Mexican sunflower, Tithonia rotundifolia.
But Lepidopterists, entomologists, horticulturists and insect photographers are.
It's autumn, approaching Halloween, and the Gulf Fritillaries are doing what comes naturally on their host plant, the passionflower vine. But sometimes you'll find them on the fence line, on the ground, or on a neighboring flower.
Then you make a beeline for your camera. It's insect wedding photography. The bride and the groom and the photographer. The sun is shining, the birds are singing, the flowers are producing nectar, the bees are buzzing, the crickets are chirping, and all's right with the world.
Love is indeed like a butterfly, "a rare and gentle thing."