I noticed a Gulf Fritillary repeatedly laying eggs on the brick wall and window screen near a south Texas passionvine (Passiflora suberosa) that surprisingly persisted growing up onto our porch until mid-January. My wife was understandably unhappy about me cutting a piece from our screen, so I got an old one from a neighbor who had recently replaced theirs, placed it next to the vine, monitored it routinely, and then cut out a section of the mesh after an egg had been laid so I could photograph it.
Ashe Juniper trees are tall and numerous in our area, and the eggs of this butterfly are tiny, so collecting them in the field would be a challenging task. I collected several female Juniper Hairstreak butterflies, placed them in a mesh enclosure with juniper branches and a nectar source, and misted it daily with water. After three days, I examined the branches for eggs, and then released the butterflies back at the site where they had been collected
I digitally blurred the bud to emphasize the structure of the egg.
