Viceroy

Fascinating facts about the Viceroy

• The viceroy is no harmless copy of the monarch; it is itself distasteful, so scientists now classify it as a Müllerian mimic rather than a Batesian one. Early ideas of a harmless mimic were overturned when experiments showed birds found the viceroy just as unpalatable as monarchs. This shared distaste means both butterflies advertise the same warning colours to predators, reinforcing each other's protection.
• Its wingspan is 53 to 81 mm. The viceroy can be distinguished from the monarch by being slightly smaller and by a distinctive postmedian black line across the hindwing veins.
• Caterpillars feed on trees in the willow family Salicaceae, including willows, poplars and cottonwoods, and they sequester salicylic acid from these hosts. The stored acid makes their bodies bitter and upsets predators' stomachs, providing a chemical defence that deters birds. This bitterness is a key reason avian predators avoid viceroy larvae, reinforcing the butterfly's overall unpalatability.
• The young viceroy caterpillars and their chrysalis are not only chemically defended, they also hide by looking like bird droppings, a visual trick that confuses predators. They achieve this disguise while feeding on willow-family trees such as willows, poplars and cottonwoods, which provide the salicylic acid that makes them bitter.
• In 1990 the viceroy was officially adopted as Kentucky's state butterfly, a tribute to its familiar presence across the state's fields and woodlands. The species inhabits most of the contiguous United States, so it is a common sight in Kentucky's habitats ranging from river valleys to forest edges. Its bright orange and black wings, typical of a Müllerian mimic, make it easy to spot during the late-morning flights when adults are active.

Sources

Every fact above was checked against these pages, and kept only where one of them states it.

• Wikipedia

At a glance

About the Viceroy

As the Viceroy butterfly dances across the sun-dappled forest floor, its delicate wings beating in a hypnotic rhythm, it weaves a intricate path through the underbrush, its orange and black hues glistening like polished jewels in the dappled light. With each flutter, it embodies the very essence of ephemeral beauty, its fragile form belied by a resilience that has allowed it to thrive in a wide range of habitats, from marshy wetlands to dry, scrubby plains. As it alights upon a leaf or flower, its proboscis uncoils like a delicate thread, sipping nectar with an elegance that is at once both refined and wild.

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