Great Spangled Fritillary

Notes:

The females emit an enticing aroma called a pheromone that attracts males. The adults mate in the summer; afterwards sometimes females take a nap of a few weeks, called diapause. They emerge from diapause in late summer and lay their eggs near patches of violets. Female great spangled fritillaries seem to be able to find the violets even after they have wilted and blown away. It is possible that they can smell the roots of violets. Curiously, females of other species of fritillaries do not appear to be terribly careful about finding the presence of violets; they seem to choose shaded, weedy places that are likely to favor the growth of violets, thus many eggs are lost when the larvae search in vain for their food and cannot find it. These mothers can afford to be careless because they lay as many as two thousand eggs, so it does not matter if many are lost.