It’s late morning in an expansive meadow in Rector, Pennsylvania. The Laurel Highlands is a beautiful and sylvan area in southwestern PA. Fittingly, this Meadow Fritillary is methodically nectaring on wildflowers. They prefer damp meadows, but as we see here, they also visit dry meadows.

This adult Meadow Fritillary is nectaring on Lance-leaved Goldenrod (Euthamia graminifolia). They are approachable when they are nectaring. Boloria bellona’s caterpillars feed upon those little violet plants that we often overlook. Violets are the host plants for many of the fritillaries.

Please make a point of seeing our post of the dorsal (above) view of a Meadow fritillary. The 2 photos complement one another. Although described in field guides as widespread, we see very few of them each year.

Jeffrey