Euptoieta claudia
In 3 days ~20% in a week ~50%
Euptoieta claudia, the variegated fritillary, is a North and South American butterfly in the family Nymphalidae. Though the variegated fritillary has some very different characteristics from the Speyeria fritillaries, it is still closely related to them. Some of the differences include variegated fritillaries have two or three broods per year vs. one per year in Speyeria; they are nomadic vs. sedentary; and they use a wide range of host plants vs. just violets. And because of their use of passionflowers as a host plant, variegated fritillaries also have taxonomic links to the heliconians. Their flight is low and swift, but even when resting or nectaring, this species is extremely difficult to approach, so its genus name was taken from the Greek word euptoietos meaning "easily scared".
The upperside of the wings is checkered with orange and black. Both the forewing and hindwing have a row of submarginal black spots and black median lines running across the wings. The underside of the forewing is orange with a pale orange spot rimmed in black in the forewing cell. The underside of the hindwing is mottled with browns and grays with a pale postmedian band. There is no... Wikipedia →
| # | Park | Country | Daily sighting probability |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Guadalupe Mountains National Park | 🇺🇸 United States | |
| 2 | Badlands National Park | 🇺🇸 United States | |
| 3 | Big Bend National Park | 🇺🇸 United States | |
| 4 | Congaree National Park | 🇺🇸 United States | |
| 5 | Padre Island National Seashore | 🇺🇸 United States | |
| 6 | Great Smoky Mountains National Park | 🇺🇸 United States | |
| 7 | Grand Canyon National Park | 🇺🇸 United States | |
| 8 | Shenandoah National Park | 🇺🇸 United States | |
| 9 | Rocky Mountain National Park | 🇺🇸 United States | |
| 10 | Cumbres de Monterrey National Park | 🇲🇽 Mexico | |
| 11 | Saguaro National Park | 🇺🇸 United States | |
| 12 | Zion National Park | 🇺🇸 United States | |
| 13 | Big Cypress National Preserve | 🇺🇸 United States | |
| 14 | Yellowstone National Park | 🇺🇸 United States | |
| 15 | Everglades National Park | 🇺🇸 United States | |
| 16 | Banff National Park | 🇨🇦 Canada |
| # | City | Country | Daily sighting probability |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | San Antonio | 🇺🇸 United States | |
| 2 | Dallas | 🇺🇸 United States | |
| 3 | Ciudad Juárez | 🇲🇽 México | |
| 4 | Austin | 🇺🇸 United States | |
| 5 | Baltimore | 🇺🇸 United States | |
| 6 | Washington | 🇺🇸 United States | |
| 7 | Denver | 🇺🇸 United States | |
| 8 | Philadelphia | 🇺🇸 United States | |
| 9 | Monterrey | 🇲🇽 México | |
| 10 | Houston | 🇺🇸 United States |
With luck
About 10% of wildlife watchers report a Variegated Fritillary sighting in Houston on a given day, based on 255 verified sightings from GBIF citizen-science data. It is the 64th most-seen of the 1057 insects we can rate there. Over three days the chance rises to about 20%, and over a week to about 50%, if each day is a fresh chance.
April
In that month about 20% of wildlife watchers report a Variegated Fritillary in Houston on a given day, against under 5% in August–September and December–January, the lowest months.
Between 10 am and 1 pm
Across all the parks we cover, that three-hour window holds the most Variegated Fritillary sightings with a recorded time, and nearly all of them come between 6 am and 6 pm: it is a daytime animal.
10th of 25
Of the 25 cities where we can rate Variegated Fritillary sightings, Houston ranks 10th at about 10%. The best odds are in San Antonio (United States, about 20%), Dallas (United States, about 20%) and Ciudad Juárez (México, about 20%).
Same family: Nymphalidae
The closest relatives of the Variegated Fritillary that you can see in Houston (family Nymphalidae, Brush-footed Butterflies) are Gulf Fritillary (about 30%), Monarch (about 30%) and Common Buckeye (about 20%), with each one's daily chance of a sighting.
GBIF citizen-science records
It is estimated from how often the Variegated Fritillary is recorded against all the insects logged in Houston (255 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.
