Dione vanillae
In 3 days ~50% in a week ~80%
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 20% of wildlife watchers report a Gulf Fritillary sighting in Great Smoky Mountains National Park on a given day, based on 184 verified sightings from GBIF citizen-science data from 2019 to 2026. It is the 28th most-seen of the 822 insects we can rate there. Over three days the chance rises to about 50%, and over a week to about 80%, if each day is a fresh chance.
September to November
In those months about 40% of wildlife watchers report a Gulf Fritillary in Great Smoky Mountains National Park on a given day, against under 5% in December to April, the lowest months.
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.
13th of 42
Of the 42 parks where we can rate Gulf Fritillary sightings, Great Smoky Mountains National Park ranks 13th at about 20%. The best odds are in Merritt Island National Wildlife Refuge (United States, about 50%), Big Cypress National Preserve (United States, about 40%) and Iberá National Park (Argentina, about 40%). All parks ranked.
Same family: Nymphalidae
The closest relatives of the Gulf Fritillary that you can see in Great Smoky Mountains National Park (family Nymphalidae, Brush-footed Butterflies) are Limenitis astyanax (about 30%), Great Spangled Fritillary (about 30%) and Eastern Comma (about 30%), 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 Great Smoky Mountains National Park (184 verified sightings from 2019 to 2026), 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.
