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The viceroy (Limenitis archippus) is a North American butterfly. It was long thought to be a Batesian mimic of the monarch butterfly, but since the viceroy is also distasteful to predators, it is now considered a Müllerian mimic instead. The viceroy was named the state butterfly of Kentucky in 1990. [3]
The viceroy butterfly (top) appears very similar to the noxious-tasting monarch butterfly (bottom). Although it was for a long time purported to be an example of Batesian mimicry, the viceroy has recently been discovered to be just as unpalatable as the monarch, making this a case of Müllerian mimicry. [4
Monarch butterfly caterpillar D. p. plexippus Piedra Herrada, Mexico. The monarch butterfly or simply monarch (Danaus plexippus) is a milkweed butterfly (subfamily Danainae) in the family Nymphalidae. [6] Other common names, depending on region, include milkweed, common tiger, wanderer, and black-veined brown. [7]
Few insects are as beloved as the monarch butterfly. These fascinating creatures are beautiful, boldly colored and surprisingly strong — the North American monarch migrating thousands of miles ...
Federal wildlife officials on Tuesday proposed protecting the striking long-distance migrators under the Endangered Species Act after dramatic population drops.
A monarch butterfly feeding on milkweed. (Shutterstock) The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service is pushing for added protections for the monarch butterfly after seeing a population decline of about 80%.
The butterflies avoid laying eggs near existing ones, reducing intraspecific competition between caterpillars, which are also cannibalistic, so those that lay on vacant leaves provide their offspring with a greater chance of survival. The stipules thus appear to have evolved as Gilbertian mimics of butterfly eggs, under selection pressure from ...
While the butterflies form a monophyletic group, the moths, which comprise the rest of the Lepidoptera, do not. Many attempts have been made to group the superfamilies of the Lepidoptera into natural groups, most of which fail because one of the two groups is not monophyletic: Microlepidoptera and Macrolepidoptera, Heterocera and Rhopalocera, Jugatae and Frenatae, Monotrysia and Ditrysia.