Gulf Fritillary

This poor little fella didn't make it to the gulf this year. I found him on our driveway last week, already gone. I brought him inside to photograph him, but never got the chance until the small group met last night to discuss product photography and try our hand. I guess he's a product of something, just not manufacturing. By the time we got to shooting, he had become very fragile, and positioning him without destroying him was tough. There was a discussion afterwards about what kind of butterfly he had been, and I thought it was a Gulf Fritillary, but was unsure because I remembered their wings being mostly orange. It turns out, the top side of the wings is very different than the bottom, but it is a Gulf Fritillary (Agraulis vanillae).

Upon close examination, I commented that the eyes looked, well dead, I guess because they were. He's still a sight to see, though.