{"id":59233,"date":"2019-07-29T05:44:41","date_gmt":"2019-07-29T11:44:41","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/?p=59233"},"modified":"2026-03-16T07:03:48","modified_gmt":"2026-03-16T12:03:48","slug":"unidentified-fritillary-butterfly-resting-on-black-twinberry-honeysuckle","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/2019\/07\/29\/unidentified-fritillary-butterfly-resting-on-black-twinberry-honeysuckle\/","title":{"rendered":"Great Spangled Fritillary Butterfly Resting On Black Twinberry Honeysuckle"},"content":{"rendered":"<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"lazyload aligncenter wp-image-172001 size-full\" title=\"Great Spangled Fritillary butterfly butterfly resting on Black Twinberry Honeysuckle, Wasatch Mountains, Morgan County, Utah\" src=\"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/great-spangled-fritillary-butterfly-resting-on-black-twinberry-honeysuckle-mia-mcpherson-2508.jpg\" data-orig-src=\"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/great-spangled-fritillary-butterfly-resting-on-black-twinberry-honeysuckle-mia-mcpherson-2508.jpg\" alt=\"Great Spangled Fritillary butterfly butterfly resting on Black Twinberry Honeysuckle, Wasatch Mountains, Morgan County, Utah\" width=\"900\" height=\"643\" srcset=\"data:image\/svg+xml,%3Csvg%20xmlns%3D%27http%3A%2F%2Fwww.w3.org%2F2000%2Fsvg%27%20width%3D%27900%27%20height%3D%27643%27%20viewBox%3D%270%200%20900%20643%27%3E%3Crect%20width%3D%27900%27%20height%3D%27643%27%20fill-opacity%3D%220%22%2F%3E%3C%2Fsvg%3E\" data-srcset=\"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/great-spangled-fritillary-butterfly-resting-on-black-twinberry-honeysuckle-mia-mcpherson-2508-200x143.jpg 200w, https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/great-spangled-fritillary-butterfly-resting-on-black-twinberry-honeysuckle-mia-mcpherson-2508-300x214.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/great-spangled-fritillary-butterfly-resting-on-black-twinberry-honeysuckle-mia-mcpherson-2508-400x286.jpg 400w, https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/great-spangled-fritillary-butterfly-resting-on-black-twinberry-honeysuckle-mia-mcpherson-2508-600x429.jpg 600w, https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/great-spangled-fritillary-butterfly-resting-on-black-twinberry-honeysuckle-mia-mcpherson-2508-768x549.jpg 768w, https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/great-spangled-fritillary-butterfly-resting-on-black-twinberry-honeysuckle-mia-mcpherson-2508.jpg 900w\" data-sizes=\"auto\" data-orig-sizes=\"(max-width: 900px) 100vw, 900px\" \/><span style=\"color: #808080;\">Great Spangled Fritillary butterfly resting on Black Twinberry Honeysuckle &#8211; Nikon D500, f7.1, 1\/1250, ISO 500, Nikkor 500mm VR with 1.4x TC, natural light<br \/>\n<\/span><\/p>\n<p>I&#8217;m fairly confident with my North American bird ID abilities but when it comes to Fritillary butterfly species ID in the Wasatch Mountains I feel stymied a lot of the time.<\/p>\n<p>Yesterday I photographed this lovely Fritillary butterfly as it rested on a Black Twinberry Honeysuckle in a canyon in the Wasatch Mountains and I took several images of it.<\/p>\n<p>To my eyes it looked smaller than the female Great Spangled Fritillary butterflies I have photographed and could positively ID but as a bird photographer and birder I know that size in the field can be deceiving.<\/p>\n<p>I&#8217;ve researched what Fritillary butterflies are found in the Wasatch Mountains and came up with these:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Callippe Fritillary (<em>Speyeria callippe harmonia<\/em>)<\/li>\n<li>Coronis Fritillary (<em>Speyeria coronis snyderi<\/em>)<\/li>\n<li>Great Spangled Fritillary (<em>Speyeria cybele letona<\/em>)<\/li>\n<li>Great Basin Fritillary (<em>Speyeria egleis utahensis<\/em>)<\/li>\n<li>Northwestern Fritillary (<em>Speyeria hesperis wasatchia<\/em>)<\/li>\n<li>Zerene Fritillary (<em>Speyeria zerene platina<\/em>)<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>I think this Fritillary is Great Spangled Fritillary but I am not 100% certain.<\/p>\n<p>I&#8217;ve tried using Bugguide.net for other butterfly and insect ID and haven&#8217;t found the site to be very helpful or quick. Last year I submitted a few Fritillary butterfly and Bee Fly images to their site that I had taken in the Wasatch and Stansbury Mountains and I still don&#8217;t have a definitive ID on those.<\/p>\n<p>So, I&#8217;m wondering if any of the people who visit and read my blog have recommendations for an app similar to <a href=\"http:\/\/merlin.allaboutbirds.org\/?utm_source=adgrant&amp;utm_medium=cpc&amp;utm_campaign=merlin&amp;utm_content=birdidapp&amp;gclid=Cj0KCQjwsvrpBRCsARIsAKBR_0KKwd5JigWZxKqH3ijC1ev1Za5rVzHWmAT832eHPfPxwniXjayU5i8aAgf-EALw_wcB\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"><span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\">Cornell Lab of Ornithology&#8217;s Merlin app<\/span><\/a> where you can take a photo of a butterfly (or other insect), submit it and get instant suggestions on the ID?<\/p>\n<p>I know that apps like Merlin aren&#8217;t 100% accurate but they can be helpful in narrowing down the ID and they are fast.<\/p>\n<p>This morning I am stumped on the ID of this butterfly.<\/p>\n<p><em><span style=\"color: #800000;\"><strong>Update August 20, 2019<\/strong><\/span><\/em>: I submitted this photo to iNaturalist.org and the consensus is that this is a Great Spangled Fritillary (<em>Speyeria cybele letona<\/em>) so I am updating the title of this post. It took a while to get the ID but I am grateful for it.<\/p>\n<p>Life <em>is<\/em> good.<\/p>\n<p>Mia<\/p>\n<p>Click <a href=\"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/flower-and-tree-images\/\"><span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\">here<\/span><\/a> to see more of my flower, shrub and tree photos. Click <a href=\"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/insects-and-spiders\/\"><span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\">here<\/span><\/a> to see my insect and spider galleries.<\/p>\n<p>One of the references I used: <a href=\"http:\/\/utahbugclub.org\/layout\/pdf\/wasatch_butterflies.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"><span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\">Wasatch Butterflies<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>I&#8217;m confident in my North American bird ID abilities but when it comes to Fritillary butterfly species ID in the Wasatch Mountains I feel stymied a lot of the time.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":172001,"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":[6668,4594,26,773,5347,99],"tags":[7491,6669,7564,6603,6041,6042,6634,7492,6670,6600,7490],"class_list":["post-59233","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-great-spangled-fritillary-butterflies","category-morgan-county","category-utah","category-wasatch-mountains","category-wildflowers","category-wildlife","tag-american-black-bear","tag-argynnis-cybele","tag-argynnis-cybele-letona","tag-black-twinberry-honeysuckle","tag-butterflies","tag-butterfly","tag-fritillary","tag-fritillary-butterfly","tag-great-spangled-fritillary","tag-lonicera-involucrata","tag-speyeria"],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/great-spangled-fritillary-butterfly-resting-on-black-twinberry-honeysuckle-mia-mcpherson-2508.jpg","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p11Mom-fpn","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":92460,"url":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/2021\/07\/22\/female-great-spangled-fritillary-butterfly\/","url_meta":{"origin":59233,"position":0},"title":"Female Great Spangled 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 &quot;Great Spangled Fritillary Butterflies&quot;","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, Utah","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/great-spangled-fritillary-butterfly-female-thistle-mia-mcpherson-0506.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/great-spangled-fritillary-butterfly-female-thistle-mia-mcpherson-0506.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/great-spangled-fritillary-butterfly-female-thistle-mia-mcpherson-0506.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/great-spangled-fritillary-butterfly-female-thistle-mia-mcpherson-0506.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":59806,"url":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/2019\/08\/30\/female-great-spangled-fritillary-butterfly-high-in-the-wasatch-mountains\/","url_meta":{"origin":59233,"position":1},"title":"Female Great Spangled Fritillary Butterfly High In The Wasatch Mountains","author":"Mia McPherson","date":"August 30, 2019","format":false,"excerpt":"Last year I saw an abundance of Great Spangled Fritillary butterflies in the Wasatch Mountains, it seemed that I could easily spot them flitting about or nectaring on thistles but this year I noticed that these and the numbers of other species of butterflies are way down in numbers","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Great Spangled Fritillary Butterflies&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Great Spangled Fritillary Butterflies","link":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/category\/wildlife\/great-spangled-fritillary-butterflies\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Nectaring female Great Spangled Fritillary butterfly, Wasatch Mountains, Morgan County, Utah","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/great-spangled-fritillary-butterfly-female-mia-mcpherson-0179.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/great-spangled-fritillary-butterfly-female-mia-mcpherson-0179.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/great-spangled-fritillary-butterfly-female-mia-mcpherson-0179.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/great-spangled-fritillary-butterfly-female-mia-mcpherson-0179.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x"},"classes":[]},{"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":59233,"position":2},"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 &quot;Great Spangled Fritillary Butterflies&quot;","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, Utah","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/great-spangled-fritillary-female-musk-thistle-mia-mcpherson-6738.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/great-spangled-fritillary-female-musk-thistle-mia-mcpherson-6738.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/great-spangled-fritillary-female-musk-thistle-mia-mcpherson-6738.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/great-spangled-fritillary-female-musk-thistle-mia-mcpherson-6738.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":92397,"url":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/2021\/07\/20\/fritillary-photobombing-a-two-tailed-swallowtail-butterfly\/","url_meta":{"origin":59233,"position":3},"title":"Fritillary photobombing a Two-tailed Swallowtail butterfly","author":"Mia McPherson","date":"July 20, 2021","format":false,"excerpt":"Last week I photographed a fritillary butterfly photobomb a Two-tailed Swallowtail butterfly as it nectared on a Showy Milkweed high in the Wasatch Mountains.","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Morgan County&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Morgan County","link":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/category\/locations\/utah\/morgan-county\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Fritillary photobombing a Two-tailed Swallowtail butterfly, Wasatch Mountains, Morgan County, Utah","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/two-tailed-swallowtail-great-spangled-fritillary-butterfly-mia-mcpherson-0226.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/two-tailed-swallowtail-great-spangled-fritillary-butterfly-mia-mcpherson-0226.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/two-tailed-swallowtail-great-spangled-fritillary-butterfly-mia-mcpherson-0226.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/two-tailed-swallowtail-great-spangled-fritillary-butterfly-mia-mcpherson-0226.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":149729,"url":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/2025\/06\/30\/great-spangled-fritillary-and-memories-of-my-mom\/","url_meta":{"origin":59233,"position":4},"title":"Great Spangled Fritillary And Memories Of My Mom","author":"Mia McPherson","date":"June 30, 2025","format":false,"excerpt":"Today I\u2019m sharing a simple Great Spangled Fritillary photo taken yesterday while the butterfly nectared on a butterfly bush here in Arkansas.","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Arkansas&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Arkansas","link":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/category\/locations\/arkansas\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Great Spangled Fritillary in Arkansas, Sebastian County","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/great-spangled-fritillary-butterfly-mia-mcpherson-0814.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/great-spangled-fritillary-butterfly-mia-mcpherson-0814.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/great-spangled-fritillary-butterfly-mia-mcpherson-0814.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/great-spangled-fritillary-butterfly-mia-mcpherson-0814.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":53074,"url":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/2018\/07\/13\/fritillary-butterfly-other-things-with-wings\/","url_meta":{"origin":59233,"position":5},"title":"Fritillary Butterfly &#8211; Other Things With Wings","author":"Mia McPherson","date":"July 13, 2018","format":false,"excerpt":"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.","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Summit County&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Summit County","link":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/category\/locations\/utah\/summit-county-utah\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Fritillary butterfly on a Musk Thistle, Little Emigration Canyon, Summit County, Utah","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/mystery-fritillary-musk-thistle-mia-mcpherson-3515.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/mystery-fritillary-musk-thistle-mia-mcpherson-3515.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/mystery-fritillary-musk-thistle-mia-mcpherson-3515.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/mystery-fritillary-musk-thistle-mia-mcpherson-3515.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x"},"classes":[]}],"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/59233","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=59233"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/59233\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/172001"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=59233"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=59233"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=59233"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}