The meadow fritillary is not a rare butterfly, but I don't see it all that often, either. It is small and kind of orange and black. The literature states that the young eat violets, as do the young of many fritillary species.
I have seen this species on only a few occasions, and then only one or two at a time. When I have seen them, they have been nectaring.
This picture was taken on a black-eyed susan in my father's small patch of reconstructed prairie.
I have found that this butterfly is kind of difficult to sneak up on. It may just be that the ones I was chasing were in my wife's flower bed. It is not cool to trample a bunch of flowers just to get a photograph of a butterfly.
I haven't seen this butterfly at mud puddles, but I haven't seen it often enough to have a good handle on their behavior. It could be that it is just uncommon enough around here that I haven't seen it puddling yet.
Although this picture doesn't enlarge well, it is one of my favorites when seen in the thumbnail size, simply because of the colors.