Orange on yellow
Click for greater size and clarity.
As I discovered when I wandered along the south bank of the Colorado River at Loop 360 on the morning of September 24, it wasn’t only dewdrops and a yellow sac spider that had descended on camphorweed, Heterotheca subaxillaris: there was also a gulf fritillary, Agraulis vanillae. Although the trailing edges of the butterfly’s wings were conspicuously the worse for wear, it had no trouble flying away when my camera eventually disturbed it.
© 2012 Steven Schwartzman
Portraits of Wildflowers 
How nice of it to pose so nicely for you before it flew away :). Very beautiful!
photosfromtheloonybin
October 7, 2012 at 6:18 AM
I think the butterfly was still cool from the night and was warming up in the morning sun. Without the close presence of my camera it might have stayed in place longer.
Steve Schwartzman
October 7, 2012 at 8:21 AM
Two weeks ago, the butterfly garden at Anahuac Wildlife Refuge was filled with medium orange butterflies I couldn’t identify. I think this would have been a reasonable choice – time for a butterfly book!
Your post reminds me of my Great-Aunt Rilla, who was much given to malapropisms (House of the Seven Grables, fig newton of the imagination). She’d caution children not to “frittle their time away”. 😉
shoreacres
October 7, 2012 at 6:27 AM
You may want to get a copy of Tveten and Tveten’s Butterflies of Houston and Southeast Texas.
If we changed the name of the butterfly in the way of your great aunt, we could call it a gulf fritirrary. That rhymes with literary, which it’s not. In any case, I guess I shouldn’t frittle away my time on speculations like that.
Steve Schwartzman
October 7, 2012 at 8:28 AM
Hello Steven. I followed you here because of your interesting comment on Susan Scheid’s Blog. I am delighted to find an excellent Blog here. There is a wonderful English Blog that you would probably like at http://hedgelandtales.blogspot.co.uk/ (it’s not mine).
But this is… Click here for Bazza’s Blog ‘To Discover Ice’
Bazza
October 7, 2012 at 8:12 AM
Thanks for your comment and for your link.
Steve Schwartzman
October 7, 2012 at 8:31 AM