I had been starting to wonder if I was going to get any passion fruit vines this year. So much of our spring vegetation has shown up early this year, so I was thinking that the passion fruit vines weren’t coming, but when I look back, I realize that they are here and blooming at just about the same time as last year. I love the exotic looking purple and green flowers that they produce, and those flowers attract several types of pollinators. The vines themselves also attract two specific types of butterflies; the gulf fritillary (Agraulis vanillae) and the zebra longwing. These butterflies lay their eggs on the vine leaves, and once they hatch, the caterpillars feed on the leaves. The adults also feed on the flower nectar.

Right now, my vines have quite a few of these cool looking gulf fritillary caterpillars on them. The orange color alone is very striking and resembles the gorgeous adults, but the black spikes really make this caterpillar very striking, and perhaps a little scary looking, too. Interestingly, although the spikes will definitely give you second thoughts about touching them, these caterpillars are pretty harmless. Both the orange color and the spikes are warnings to predators to leave them alone. I intend to keep checking on my little caterpillars since I hope to get to see a chrysalis or two this year. If I do, you’ll be the first to know.