Gulf Fritillary Butterfly - Host plant Passion Flower Vine

Monarch Mating Florida Pan Handle area Thanksgiving week 2011

The male looked pretty tattered, but the female looked fairly new. The mating process took quite a while. I probably watched for 15 minutes before I moved on to see something else. 

Butterflies : Thanksgiving Week in South Walton Beach, Florida (pan handle)

We had the opportunity to see Monarchs in every part of their life cycle at the butterfly garden in Watercolor, Florida. I had never seen so many Monarchs in one place and seeing every aspect of their life cycle going on in one place was a real treat! Also there in far more numbers were Gulf Fritillary butterflies. I have been going to Florida for Thanksgiving week for about 16 years now and I had never seen so many Gulf Fritillary butterflies. They were extremely active. We saw eggs, cats, chrysalis and their mating rituals as well.