Gulf Fritillary Caterpillars on the Passionflower Vine

There are currently three Gulf Fritillary Agraulis vanillae caterpillars on the Oaklandia Passionflower Passiflora parritae x tarminiana‘Oaklandia’ !

This is an awesome event because we saw none on the vine for the past three years, although we often observed a female Gulf Fritillary laying eggs on the vine. I suspect that spiders got to the tiny larvae. Sadly, two summers ago I spotted several tiny dead larvae stuck in spider webs next to the pot where the vine is growing.

These three are each longer than 3/4 of an inch, and seem to be growing fairly rapidly.

I keep brushing away spider web filaments from the vine, hoping for a better chance of survival for the caterpillars.

They definitely have ominous looking spines on them, you'd wonder who would even want to mess with them.