Cloudless Cardinal
Jay Davis
September 5, 2022
As luck would have it, as soon as Charlie told me that my mystery flower from my last post was a Cardinal Flower (Lobelia cardinalis), I happened onto a Cloudless Sulphur butterfly (Phoebis sennae) probing a Cardinal Flower with its long proboscis.
I’ve been working on learning to identify butterfly species slowly but surely over the past couple years. My phone and camera are littered with photos of butterflies, including a few from our treasure hunt for Diana Fritillary last week on Cooper Creek Road in North Georgia.
Speaking of fritillaries, I didn’t know that there were other fritillaries besides the Gulf Fritillary until this year! I’ve been lucky to come across both the Great Spangled Fritillary and the Variegated Fritillary this Summer. The Diana Fritillary was a nice addition to the list.
- Gulf Fritillary: Agraulus vanillae
- Great Spangled Fritillary: Speyeria cybele
- Variegated Fritillary: Euptoieta claudia
- Diana Fritillary: Speyeria diana
- Aphrodite Fritillary: Speyeria aphrodite
Aphrodite Fritillary is the only one left in Georgia that I haven’t seen.