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Limenitis archippus
Upperside is orange and black, resembling the Monarch (Danaus plexippus), except the Viceroy has a black line across the hindwing and a single row of white dots in the black marginal band. Where Monarchs are rare in Florida, Georgia, and the Southwest, Viceroys are brown instead of orange and mimic the Queen (Danaus gilippus).
Moist open or shrubby areas such as lake and swamp edges, willow thickets, valley bottoms, wet meadows, and roadsides.Northwest Territories south along the eastern edges of the Cascade and Sierra Nevada mountains to central Mexico, east through all the eastern United .
Spotted on Jun 15, 2011
Submitted on Jun 15, 2011
11 Comments
Thank you ! HeatherMiller :))
Very nice photo. I did not know Monarchs had species that mimicked them. Good tip on the black line.
Thank you ! I work hard on that was with my tripod and mosquito hahahaha :)
Great Picture!
Luc, you are welcome. I find every butterfly adorable. I specially impressed with small Skippers with their speed and activities.
Still a great shot/ la photo n'en reste pas moins très belle Luc!
Yes, it is different. I should have loved it to be a monarch, but I'm still happy to have photographed the viceroy , thank you AshishNimkar
Both wings and antenna tips are different if observed closely both Common Tiger and Viceroy butterflies..
Thank you very much Michael ! they resemble Monarch and Viceroy .:) I'll change the spec , thank you :))
Micheal you are right Black tips are not matching Common Tiger.
This looks like a Viceroy (Limenitis archippus), which a a Monarch mimic. The easy way to tell is the line on the hindwing, Viceroys have a very distinguishable line that curves.
The reason this butterfly mimics the Monarch is because of taste. Monarchs feed on milkweeds, making them taste awful to predators. Those predators then won't eat anything that looks like a Monarch.
http://www.butterfliesandmoths.org/speci...