Love between the Fritillary Butterfly and the Passion vine

              I have been enjoying the Fritillary butterflies that found my passion vine.  There are up to 8 of these beautiful butterflies flitting around the butterfly garden and the passion vine every day.  The passion vine is their host plant.  I go out to my back yard each morning the stand amongst them with awe.  How did they know that I planted a passion vine and other flowering plants they could feed on?  It is a miracle of God in my eyes.  They started mating and then laying eggs on the passion vine leaves, then little caterpillars hatched.  More hatched and the munching caterpillars got bigger and bigger.  I literally have close to a hundred caterpillars of all sizes on my passion vine.

Getting to know each other

Butterflies mating

Caterpillars

 

Butterfly garden at height of blooms in May and June

Cocoon

I just went outside and saw 3 new passion flowers.  One was up high where the caterpillars like to hang out for some reason unknown to me (maybe they like the 105 degree heat).  The bugs and the caterpillars are clustered around it having afternoon tea or social hour!

Isn't this an amazing photo?  Passion flower with bugs and caterpillars