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Is this a red spotted purple?
Hi there Bugman!
I really enjoy perusing your site, it’s great! I looked through all your butterfly pictures (and the ones at http://nabamidtn.org/ ) and the closest that I get to for this butterfly is the Red spotted Purple. Is that right? It doesn’t look exactly like it, byut that was the closest that I could find. They were very beautiful and I spent most of the week running around and chasing them in an effort to get a decent picture. The second one was starnded on the pavement (it had been run over by several cars-between the wheel base-, so I finally rescued it and placed it in the grass, where I was able to get several pictures). I saw several butterflies like it in Gatlinburg, TN this last week (late September). None of the locals seemed to be familiar with it. If it the same as the second one that I saw, it’s underwings are black with orange spots. Actually the two don’t look exactly the same, so I suppose that I have two differnt kinds. These photos are cropped and resized, but otherwise not manipulated. I have the full resolution shots if you are interested in them (5 megapixel). Both were located in the Great Smokey Mountains National Park. Thanks for any info that you may be able to send my way!
Nelda

Hi Nelda,
One of your photos is of a Red Spotted Purple, and we have no shortage of those images on our site, so we will not be posting it. Your other image however has us very excited. It is of a female Diana Fritillary, Speyeria diana, a species that exhibits pronounced sexual dimorphism. Some Fritillaries, including the Diana Fritillary, seem to be getting very rare.

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1. Female Diana Fritillary (January 21, 2008)
2. Male Diana Fritillary (June 20, 2008)
3. Female Diana Fritillary and a perplexing situation (August 16, 2008)
4. Greater Fritillary, probably Great Spangled Fritillary, attracted by sweat (July 18, 2008)
5. Female Diana Fritillary (August 25, 2009)