Dione vanillae
In 3 days ~70% in a week ~90%
The Gulf fritillary or passion butterfly (Dione vanillae or Agraulis vanillae in other taxonomies) is a bright orange butterfly in the subfamily Heliconiinae of the family Nymphalidae. That subfamily was formerly set apart as a separate family, the Heliconiidae. The Heliconiinae are "longwing butterflies", which have long, narrow wings compared to other butterflies.
Dione vanillae is most commonly found in the southern areas of the United States, specifically in many regions of Florida and Texas. Gulf fritillaries have a chemical defense mechanism in which they release odorous chemicals in response to predator sightings. As a result, common predators learn to avoid this species. Pheromones play a critical role in male-female courtship behaviors, with male gulf fritillaries emitting sex pheromones that contribute to mate choice in females.
The scientific name Papilio vanillae was given to the gulf fritillary by Carl Linnaeus in 1758, based on a 1705 painting by Maria Sibylla Merian (The Metamorphosis of the Insects of Surinam, Plate XXV), which shows the adult and caterpillar of the gulf fritillary on a vanilla orchid, Vanilla planifolia. However, it is now known that the gulf fritillary caterpillar does not use the vanilla plant. The species was moved to the genus Agraulis in 1835 by Boisduval & Le Conte. A phylogenetic analysis reported in 2019 placed Agraulis as a sub-genus of Dione. Wikipedia →
| # | City | Country | Daily sighting probability |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Cochabamba | 🇧🇴 Bolivia | |
| 2 | Rosario | 🇦🇷 Argentina | |
| 3 | Buenos Aires | 🇦🇷 Argentina | |
| 4 | San Antonio | 🇺🇸 United States | |
| 5 | Mendoza | 🇦🇷 Argentina | |
| 6 | Austin | 🇺🇸 United States | |
| 7 | Santo Domingo | 🇩🇴 Dominican Republic | |
| 8 | Houston | 🇺🇸 United States | |
| 9 | Havana | 🇨🇺 Cuba | |
| 10 | Cordoba | 🇦🇷 Argentina |
Possible
About 30% of wildlife watchers report a Gulf Fritillary sighting in Houston on a given day, based on 2,597 verified sightings from GBIF citizen-science data. It is the most-seen of the 1057 insects we can rate there. Over three days the chance rises to about 70%, and over a week to about 90%, if each day is a fresh chance.
October
In that month about 50% of wildlife watchers report a Gulf Fritillary in Houston on a given day, against about 10% in February, the lowest month.
Between 10 am and 1 pm
Across all the parks we cover, that three-hour window holds the most Gulf Fritillary sightings with a recorded time, and about 9 in 10 of them come between 6 am and 6 pm: it is a daytime animal.
8th of 58
Of the 58 cities where we can rate Gulf Fritillary sightings, Houston ranks 8th at about 30%. The best odds are in Cochabamba (Bolivia, about 50%), Rosario (Argentina, about 50%) and Buenos Aires (Argentina, about 40%).
Same family: Nymphalidae
The closest relatives of the Gulf Fritillary that you can see in Houston (family Nymphalidae, Brush-footed Butterflies) are Monarch (about 30%), Common Buckeye (about 20%) and Red Admiral (about 10%), with each one's daily chance of a sighting.
GBIF citizen-science records
It is estimated from how often the Gulf Fritillary is recorded against all the insects logged in Houston (2,597 verified sightings), calibrated against known sighting rates. Figures are rounded to the nearest 10% because citizen-science data supports honest approximations, not decimals, and months with records from fewer than five people show "—". How it works.
