Field Guide
Learn how viceroy butterflies are masters of disguise.
It happens to every nature enthusiast at least once. You spot an orange butterfly with black markings hovering around a pretty flower and say, “Oh, look, it’s a monarch!” Except, on closer inspection, you realize it’s not. That bold beauty is actually one of the monarch mimics—a viceroy.
Once you know how to spot the difference, it’s easy to tell the two apart. Generally, viceroys are a bit smaller than monarchs. But the simplest way to differentiate between them is to check for the extra black line that extends all the way across the lower wing. You can see this giveaway whether the wings are open or closed.
Mimicry is a common form of defense among butterflies. Both monarchs and viceroys eat plants that contain bitter-tasting chemicals. For the monarchs, it’s milkweed, which contains toxic latex sap. Monarchs have learned to tolerate it and store those toxins in their bodies to make them taste bad to predators, both as caterpillars and adults.
Likewise, viceroy caterpillars chow down on host plants in the willow family. Those plants contain salicylic acids, and viceroys store them in their bodies, just as monarchs store latex sap. By evolving to resemble each other, monarchs
and viceroys signal to predators that they’re both unpalatable.
Viceroys mimic other monarch lookalikes, too. Queen and soldier butterflies have darker, burnt orange-brown coloring compared to monarchs. They’re only found in southern areas. Viceroys that also live in the south are noticeably darker, as they mimic the queen instead of the monarch.
Viceroy caterpillars look nothing like their yellow, white and blackstriped monarch counterparts. Instead, in their later stages and in chrysalis, they mimic a pile of bird droppings—clearly not a tasty meal!
Unlike monarchs, viceroys don’t migrate, and adults die off before winter sets in. When the days grow short, late-season caterpillars use silk to secure leaf stems firmly to branches. They roll up the leaves and shelter inside through winter. As soon as fresh leaves grow in spring, the caterpillars emerge and resume eating. In just a few weeks, new adults appear.
Viceroys are found in or near wetlands and moist woodlands throughout most of the United States and parts of Canada and Mexico. Adults sip nectar from flowers but also love rotting fruit and tree sap, especially in spring. Attract them by planting their host plants—such as willow, cottonwood and poplar—in your backyard garden.
Jill Staake is an avid butterfly gardener in Florida, where she regularly tells people, “That’s not actually a monarch!”