# Fritillaries and other nectar butterflies

*Speyeria and others*

Dozens of butterfly species feed at milkweed without ever laying an egg on it.

## What it does on milkweed

Great spangled fritillaries, swallowtails, hairstreaks, skippers and painted ladies all work milkweed heavily. None of them can use it as a host plant; their caterpillars eat violets, willows, legumes and thistles. They come for a nectar supply that arrives in high summer, when many other flowers have finished.

## How to recognize it

The great spangled fritillary is large and orange with black chevrons above and rows of silver spots beneath the hindwing. Everything else at a milkweed umbel is worth a second look.

## Where and when

Throughout the United States, with the mix changing by region.

## Should you do anything about it?

Nothing to do. This is the argument for milkweed in a garden that will never see a monarch.

### Do other butterflies lay eggs on milkweed?

Only the milkweed butterflies do: monarch, queen and soldier. Everything else at the flowers is nectaring.

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Source: https://milkweedusa.com/wildlife/nectar-butterflies/ — Milkweed USA, CC BY 4.0.