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| Fall-blooming Blue Mistflower and White Boneset attract late season butterflies. |
Butterflies are frequently thought of as insects that fly primarily in the spring and summer seasons. This is because the emergence of many butterfly species is unimodal, which means that their numbers increase as environmental resources increase. These resources are defined as their host plants and nectar plants, which also become available during these warmer seasons.
However, there are some species that have bimodal emergences, or increases in numbers in both the spring/summer and fall seasons. It is thought that the division of offspring between two different emergence times may have evolved to avoid producing all offspring at one time. This approach would reduce the risk of species mortality in case of potential fluctuations in habitat quality.
Whether they be unimodal or bimodal, butterfly species typically exhibit a tightly synchronized adult emergence in order to help them locate mates. Further still, some species are present in low numbers during most of the year, but their numbers increase during the fall. In central Texas these species include the Tailed Orange (Pyrisitia proterpia), Julia (Dryas iulia), Common Mestra (Mestra amymone), Queen (Danaus gilippus), and White-striped Longtail (Chioides albofasciatus).
In the fall, the Tailed Orange is in its winter form, yellow with brown lines and blotches below and a noticeably pointed hindwing edge. Its summer form is unmarked yellow below and the hindwing edge is less pointed. It flies late summer through fall, and uses senna species as its host plant.
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| Tailed Orange, winter form |
The fast-flying Julia is mostly orange above and orange to brown below, with the female being a duller orange than the male and having a dark forewing band. Its longwing shape is quite distinctive and it prefers woodland edges and gardens where it uses passionvine species as its host plant.
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| Julia, male |
A slower, flat-winged flyer, the Common Mestra is pearly white above with a pale orange border on its hindwing, and mostly pale orange below with a thin, white spotband. It is most often seen from June to November, and it uses noseburn species as its host plant.
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| Common Mestra |
The Queen butterfly is often confused with monarchs, as it also uses milkweed species as its host plant. Rich dark brown to deep orange above with white spots in the black wing margins, it lacks the strong black veining on the wings like monarchs, and can be found in any open habitat usually visiting flowers.
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| Queen |
Straying into our area from south Texas, the White-striped Longtail is a dark brown butterfly with very long tails, and a prominent white stripe on the underside of its hindwing. It usually perches with its wings closed, and uses various legume species as host plants.
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| White-striped Longtail |
One way to increase your chances of seeing these fall fliers in your yard is to provide native plant species that bloom in late summer and well into fall. These plants include Frostweed, Gregg’s Mistflower, Blue Mistflower, White Boneset, Lindheimer’s Senna, Plateau Goldeneye, and Texas Lantana. And remember, fall is the perfect time to plant!
