This passion vine butterfly was feeding on passion flowers, but it will feed on many other flowers, too. It gets its name because passion vines are the host plant for the passion vine butterfly’s caterpillar. Those caterpillars spend their days munching leaves, many of which have little yellow bumps on them. The bumps, which can be seen in the photos, are the plants’ way of trying to fool the butterflies into believing that there are already eggs on the leaves and so it’s not a good spot to lay more.
It’s hard to know how effective this ruse is. I’ve seen many butterflies laying eggs on these leaves, but perhaps some are discouraged. Regardless, the caterpillars will move from leaf to leaf while chowing down, but they never seem to defoliate the plant, which is, in any case, a robustly growing vine.
Graham's Island 
They have destroyed my front property passion vine that has been growing for at least 10 years!! sad
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Sorry to hear that. I know the caterpillars are quite voracious, but where I see them, the plants are plentiful enough that they weather the caterpillar storm.
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A very striking butterfly, with wings both open and closed.
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Thanks. Some butterflies I almost always only see either resting with wings closed or flying with wings open. The passion vine is one of those that I see a lot both ways.
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So beautiful.
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I see a lot of these butterflies and never tire of watching them.
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