Bug FAQCallippe Fritillary
Speyeria callippe · Order: Lepidoptera · Family: Nymphalidae
The Callippe fritillary has a wingspan of about 5 to 6.4 cm and shows tawny to bright red-brown upper wings with black zigzag stripes and a black-brown outer edge marked by pale lunules. It lives in sagebrush, dry woodlands, forest edges, chaparral and grassy hillsides across western North America, from British Columbia to the central United States and down to southern California and Nevada. The species is univoltine; first-stage caterpillars overwinter and feed on various violet species in spring, while adults fly from May to August, with females emerging before males.
Source: Wikipedia
How to recognize it
Upper wings range from tawny to bright red-brown with evenly spaced black zigzag stripes. The outer wing contour is black-brown, broken by a row of pale crescent shapes.
Source: Wikipedia
Where it lives
Found in sagebrush, dry woodland, forest edges, chaparral and grassy hillsides.
Source: Wikipedia
What it eats
First-stage caterpillars feed on leaves of several violet species such as Viola pedunculata and Viola nuttallii.
Source: Wikipedia
Life cycle
The species has one generation per year (univoltine). Caterpillars overwinter unfed and resume feeding on violets in spring.
Source: Wikipedia
When you see it
Adults are on the wing from May through August, with females emerging before males.
Source: Wikipedia
Where it is found in the US
Recorded in 13 of 51 states and DC. Most records: California, Idaho, Colorado, Oregon, Wyoming, Utah, Nevada, Montana.
Darker = more records. Counts are museum and citizen-science records, not population size.
Source: GBIF
Months it is reported in the US
Source: GBIF
More photos
Questions people ask
When are Callippe fritillary butterflies active?
Adults fly from May to August, and females appear before the males.
Source: Wikipedia
How many generations does the Callippe fritillary have each year?
It produces one generation per year (univoltine).
Source: Wikipedia
Same family (Nymphalidae)
Sources
- Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Speyeria_callippe
Look it up elsewhere: GBIF · iNaturalist · BugGuide · ITIS · Wikipedia
Text written 2026-10-24 from the sources above and checked sentence by sentence against them. Data fetched 2026-10-23.