A New Visitor - Heliconius charitonia

Butterflies are self propelled flowers.  ~R.H. Heinlein

The caterpillar does all the work but the butterfly gets all the publicity. ~Attributed to George Carlin

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The Zebra Longwing, Heliconius charitonia (Linnaeus),was designated the Florida state butterfly in 1996.

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A couple weeks ago a friend of Tammy's from The Garden Gate in Gulf Breeze, Fl gave Tammy a Zebra Longwing caterpillar. They are not commonly found in Northwest Florida and their host plant is the passion vine which is also the host plant for the Gulf Fritillary which are quite common in our area.

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Zebra Longwing caterpillar (about an inch in length)

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Zebra Longwing pupae (about an inch in length)

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Hopefully I'll be able to post an image soon of the first Zebra Longwing butterfly to emerge at 1 Acre Wood.

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Grace & Peace