{"id":53074,"date":"2018-07-13T05:18:38","date_gmt":"2018-07-13T11:18:38","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/?p=53074"},"modified":"2026-02-02T06:00:25","modified_gmt":"2026-02-02T12:00:25","slug":"fritillary-butterfly-other-things-with-wings","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/2018\/07\/13\/fritillary-butterfly-other-things-with-wings\/","title":{"rendered":"Fritillary Butterfly – Other Things With Wings"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"FritillaryFritillary butterfly on a Musk Thistle – Nikon D500, f7.1, 1\/640, ISO 500, Nikkor 500mm VR with 1.4x TC, natural light
\n<\/span><\/p>\n

People say that bird identification is hard and it can be. I do well with most bird identifications but I’m here to tell you that butterfly identification is much more of a challenge for me when it comes to some species such as fritillary butterflies.<\/p>\n

Yesterday while I was up in the Wasatch Mountains<\/span><\/a> I spotted a fritillary butterfly on a Musk thistle and took some images of it as it nectared on the thistle. My brain immediately said “Fritillary” and for that moment that was, for me, a sufficient ID because I figured that later on I’d be able to narrow down the identification of the species.<\/p>\n

Ha.<\/p>\n

At first I was convinced that this butterfly was a Great Spangled Fritillary but after finding out how many species of fritillary butterflies can be found in Utah I became less confident of my butterfly identification skills.<\/p>\n

Male and female fritillary butterflies look different from each other and although those differences can be subtle that makes it even more of a challenge.<\/p>\n

I have a huge book called “The Dictionary of Butterflies and Moths” by Allan Watson and Paul E.S. Whalley and honestly going through it just confused me more.<\/p>\n

I also looked in my copy of “National Geographic Illustrated Guide to Wildlife” and no joy, I couldn’t pin down the ID. Looking on line wasn’t much help either because there can be so many misidentifications shared on the web.<\/p>\n

\"FritillaryFritillary butterfly – Nikon D500, f7.1, 1\/800, ISO 500, -0.3 EV, Nikkor 500mm VR with 1.4x TC, natural light<\/span><\/p>\n

So, I’m going to ask for help later on today from bugguide.net<\/span><\/a> with the identification of this fritillary butterfly. I don’t normally have to ask for identification assistance but I need it for this other thing with wings. Bird ID is much easier for me.<\/p>\n

If I get the ID sorted out I will update this post.<\/p>\n

Life is<\/em> good.<\/p>\n

Mia<\/p>\n

Click here<\/span><\/a> to see more of my flower, shrub and tree photos. Click here<\/a><\/span> to see more of my insect and spider images.<\/p>\n

P.S., the spots under the wings of the butterfly aren’t pink, they are just picking up the pink from the thistle, they are actually more of a silvery white than is seen in this bottom image.<\/em><\/p>\n

These are fritillary butterflies that can be found in Utah:
\nAgraulis vanillae incarnata<\/em> (gulf fritillary)
\nEuptoieta claudia<\/em> (variegated fritillary)
\nSpeyeria cybele letona<\/em> (letona fritillary)
\nSpeyeria cybele charlotti<\/em> (great spangled fritillary)
\nSpeyeria aphrodite ethne<\/em> (aphrodite fritillary)
\nSpeyeria nokomis nokomis<\/em> (nokomis fritillary)
\nSpeyeria nokomis apacheana<\/em> (nokomis fritillary)
\nSpeyeria edwardsi<\/em> (Edwards fritillary)
\nSpeyeria coronis snyderi<\/em> (coronis fritillary)
\nSpeyeria zerene platina<\/em> (zerene fritillary)
\nSpeyeria callippe harmonia<\/em> (callippe fritillary)
\nSpeyeria egleis utahensis<\/em> (great basin fritillary)
\nSpeyeria egleis linda<\/em> (great basin fritillary)
\nSpeyeria hesperis wasatchia<\/em> (northwestern fritillary)
\nSpeyeria hesperis chitone<\/em> (northwestern fritillary)
\nSpeyeria hydaspe sakantula<\/em> (hydaspe fritillary)
\nSpeyeria mormonia mormonia<\/em> (mormon fritillary)
\nSpeyeria mormonia eurynome<\/em> (mormon fritillary)
\nBoloria selene tollandensis<\/em> (silver-bordered fritillary)
\nBoloria kriemhild kriemhild<\/em> (relict fritillary)
\nBoloria freija browni<\/em> (freija fritillary)
\nBoloria chariclea helena<\/em> (arctic fritillary)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I’m going to ask for help later on today from bugguide.net with the identification of this fritillary butterfly. I don’t normally have to ask for identification assistance but I need it for this other thing with wings. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":53072,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1731,26,99],"tags":[6041,6042,6623,6634,5013,6622,5064,5070,6626,6624,4307],"class_list":["post-53074","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-summit-county-utah","category-utah","category-wildlife","tag-butterflies","tag-butterfly","tag-carduus-nutans","tag-fritillary","tag-identification","tag-musk-thistle","tag-pink-wildflowers","tag-purple-wildflowers","tag-thistle","tag-thistles","tag-wildflowers"],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/mystery-fritillary-musk-thistle-mia-mcpherson-3515.jpg","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p11Mom-dO2","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":53260,"url":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/2018\/07\/29\/female-great-spangled-fritillary-nectaring-on-musk-thistle-in-the-wasatch-mountains\/","url_meta":{"origin":53074,"position":0},"title":"Female Great Spangled Fritillary Nectaring on Musk Thistle in the Wasatch Mountains","author":"Mia McPherson","date":"July 29, 2018","format":false,"excerpt":"Last week while I was up in a canyon in the Wasatch Mountains I spotted a female Great Spangled Fritillary butterfly nectaring on a Musk Thistle so I felt I had to take photos of she sipped the nectar of the flower.","rel":"","context":"In "Great Spangled Fritillary Butterflies"","block_context":{"text":"Great Spangled Fritillary Butterflies","link":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/category\/wildlife\/great-spangled-fritillary-butterflies\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Great Spangled Fritillary female on a Musk Thistle, Wasatch Mountains, Morgan County, 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Fritillary Butterfly","author":"Mia McPherson","date":"July 22, 2021","format":false,"excerpt":"This is a female Great Spangled Fritillary, a butterfly species that can be abundant in the Wasatch Mountains at this time of the year.\u00a0","rel":"","context":"In "Great Spangled Fritillary Butterflies"","block_context":{"text":"Great Spangled Fritillary Butterflies","link":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/category\/wildlife\/great-spangled-fritillary-butterflies\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Great Spangled Fritillary butterfly female in July, Wasatch Mountains, Morgan County, 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