Great Spangled Fritillary

On Friday Erika and I visited Afton State Park in Washington Co., Minnesota. We happened upon this Great Spangled Fritillary, common along woodland edges across the northern United States and southern Canada. This butterfly is more abundant in the east than in the west and color varies across this range. Males emerge in May and June and survive only to mate. After mating, females remain under bark or leaves, coming out in August through September, at which time males are almost non-existant (Wikipedia). Although adults feed on a wide variety of flowers, females lay eggs on violets.