{"id":92460,"date":"2021-07-22T05:03:20","date_gmt":"2021-07-22T11:03:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/?p=92460"},"modified":"2026-03-16T07:21:39","modified_gmt":"2026-03-16T12:21:39","slug":"female-great-spangled-fritillary-butterfly","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/2021\/07\/22\/female-great-spangled-fritillary-butterfly\/","title":{"rendered":"Female Great Spangled Fritillary Butterfly"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"GreatGreat Spangled Fritillary butterfly female in July \u2013 Nikon D810, f7.1, 1\/640, ISO 500, Nikkor 500mm VR with 1.4x TC, natural light<\/span><\/p>\n

When I first saw this butterfly nectaring on a Musk Thistle I didn’t recognize the species and that is because she had her wings closed. This is a female Great Spangled Fritillary, a butterfly species that can be abundant in the Wasatch Mountains<\/span><\/a> at this time of the year.<\/p>\n

Most of the time when I see the females of this Great Spangled Fritillary butterflies they have their wings open while they are nectaring.<\/p>\n

\"NectaringNectaring female Great Spangled Fritillary butterfly \u2013 Nikon D500, f7.1, 1\/1250, ISO 500, Nikkor 500mm VR with 1.4x TC, natural light<\/span><\/p>\n

When the wings of female Great Spangled Fritillary butterflies are open the patterns and colors are quite different. This photo was taken nearly two years ago.<\/p>\n

\"GreatGreat Spangled Fritillary butterfly resting on Black Twinberry Honeysuckle – Nikon D500, f7.1, 1\/1250, ISO 500, Nikkor 500mm VR with 1.4x TC, natural light<\/span><\/p>\n

Male Great Spangled Fritillary butterflies look nothing like the females. I photographed this male on a Black Twinberry Honeysuckle about two years ago.<\/p>\n

I enjoy photographing butterflies when I can.<\/p>\n

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

Mia<\/p>\n

Click here<\/span><\/a> to see more of my insect and spider images. Click here<\/a><\/span> to see more of my wildflower photos along with shrubs and trees.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":172015,"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],"tags":[4004,6669,6603,6041,6042,3940,6623,4070,5370,12033,6634,6670,6608,9360,6600,4069,6622,6044,6853,5064,2315,6626,6624,4307],"class_list":["post-92460","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-great-spangled-fritillary-butterflies","category-morgan-county","category-utah","category-wasatch-mountains","tag-adult","tag-argynnis-cybele","tag-black-twinberry-honeysuckle","tag-butterflies","tag-butterfly","tag-canyon","tag-carduus-nutans","tag-female","tag-forest","tag-fritillaries","tag-fritillary","tag-great-spangled-fritillary","tag-honeysuckle","tag-honeysuckles","tag-lonicera-involucrata","tag-mountains","tag-musk-thistle","tag-nectaring","tag-nonnative","tag-pink-wildflowers","tag-summer-3","tag-thistle","tag-thistles","tag-wildflowers"],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/great-spangled-fritillary-butterfly-female-thistle-mia-mcpherson-0506.jpg","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p11Mom-o3i","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":92460,"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, 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":59806,"url":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/2019\/08\/30\/female-great-spangled-fritillary-butterfly-high-in-the-wasatch-mountains\/","url_meta":{"origin":92460,"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 "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":"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":59233,"url":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/2019\/07\/29\/unidentified-fritillary-butterfly-resting-on-black-twinberry-honeysuckle\/","url_meta":{"origin":92460,"position":2},"title":"Great Spangled Fritillary Butterfly Resting On Black Twinberry Honeysuckle","author":"Mia McPherson","date":"July 29, 2019","format":false,"excerpt":"I'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.","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 butterfly resting on Black Twinberry Honeysuckle, Wasatch Mountains, Morgan County, Utah","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/great-spangled-fritillary-butterfly-resting-on-black-twinberry-honeysuckle-mia-mcpherson-2508.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-resting-on-black-twinberry-honeysuckle-mia-mcpherson-2508.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/great-spangled-fritillary-butterfly-resting-on-black-twinberry-honeysuckle-mia-mcpherson-2508.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-resting-on-black-twinberry-honeysuckle-mia-mcpherson-2508.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":92460,"position":3},"title":"Fritillary Butterfly – 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 "Summit County"","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":[]},{"id":92397,"url":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/2021\/07\/20\/fritillary-photobombing-a-two-tailed-swallowtail-butterfly\/","url_meta":{"origin":92460,"position":4},"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 "Morgan County"","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":92460,"position":5},"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 "Arkansas"","block_context":{"text":"Arkansas","link":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/category\/locations\/arkansas\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Great Spangled Fritillary in Arkansas, Sebastian 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