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| Common Sunflower is a native larval host plant for one of our brooding butterflies. |
In human terms, brooding typically means showing deep, quiet unhappiness but when it pertains to butterflies, it describes how many broods or distinct generations of butterflies a species produces in one year. Summertime in our area highlights those butterfly species that have multiple broods spring through fall, also called multivoltines. The most commonly seen multiple brooders include Queen (Danaus gilippus), Gulf Fritillary (Dione vanillae), Bordered Patch (Chlosyne lacinia), White-striped Longtail (Chioides albofasciatus), and Pipevine Swallowtail (Battus philenor) butterflies.
Queens are most often confused with Monarchs, given their mostly rich orange-brown coloring, with white spots nearest the wing tips and in the black wing margins, but lacking the Monarch’s bold black wing veining. Like Monarchs, their native larval host plant is milkweed, specifically Antelope Horn, Fringed Twinevine, and Butterfly Milkweed.
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| Queens are often mistaken for Monarchs. |
Gulf Fritillaries are another mostly orange butterfly, with a few black markings on the wings above and many elongated silvery spots on the wings below. They have slightly elongated wings and their flight is fast and usually well above the ground. Their native larval host plant is passionvine, including Purple Passionvine, Fetid Passionvine, and Yellow Passionvine.
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| Gulf Fritillary nectaring on Blue Mistflower. |
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| Silvery spots on the underside of the Gulf Fritillary. |
Bordered Patches can be remarkably variable, but typically have black forewings and hindwings with an orange and/or creamy white median band of spots that can vary in width. Their native larval host plants are in the sunflower/aster family, specifically Common Sunflower, Cowpen Daisy, and Black-eyed Susan.
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| Bordered Patch on one of its native larval host plants, Cowpen Daisy. |
White-striped Longtails are brown butterflies with very long tails and a prominent white stripe on the hindwing below. This characteristic is usually easy to see since these butterflies typically perch with their wings closed. Their native larval host plants are legumes in the pea family, namely Panicledleaf Ticktrefoil and Softleaf Mimosa.
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| White-striped Longtail nectaring on Blue Mistflower. |
Pipevine Swallowtails are our most familiar dark swallowtail, black above with a single row of pale spots near the wing margins. Males have a beautiful blue-green iridescence on the hindwing above, and both sexes have a single row of bright orange spots in an iridescent blue background on the hindwing below. Their native larval hosts plants are pipevines, including Swanflower and Virginia’s Dutchmanspipe.
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| Upperside of a male Pipevine Swallowtail. |
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| Underside of a Pipevine Swallowtail. |
These multiple brooders produce three or more continuous generations per year, often flying repeatedly from early spring to late fall. The final brood of the year often exhibits different physiological or behavioral traits, such as delayed development or seasonal movement, that allows them to survive winter conditions. In the case of the species outlined above, most move further south as the temperatures fall and then north again as they rise, but the swallowtails overwinter hidden away in chrysalis form until warmer temperatures coax them to emerge in spring.
