Sharing a Mexican Sunflower

Dec 15, 2014

Two's company. Three's a crowd?

Not necessarily.

Sometimes we wish it were half a dozen.

Last July we were admiring two newly emerged Gulf Fritillary butterflies on  Mexican sunflowers (Tithonia) when a Western Tiger Swallowtail fluttered down, seemingly out of nowhere, to occupy the same sunflower as one Gulf Frit.

The Gulf Fritillary (Agraulis vanillae) and the Western Tiger Swallowtail (Papilio rutulus) eyed each other for a few seconds. Then in the way of the West ("This town isn't big enough for the both of us") the tiger spread its wings and took off.