Stanley Arthur of Memphis, Tennessee, for is question:
How can you tell a monarch from a viceroy butterfly?
The grown up viceroy butterfly is said to imitate the grown up monarch butterfly. Although we might dust as well say that it is the monarch who imitates the viceroy. Chances are, neither one has any idea of imitating the other. It dust so happens that monarch and viceroy butterflies look alike so much alike, you might well mistake one for the other.
The wings of both butterflies are a brownish shade of orange, beautifully veined and bordered with brownish black. The monarch, however: is slightly larger than the viceroy. It has fewer dark veins and shows more of its orange color.. The dark borders of its wings are dotted with a double row of white spots. The outside tip of each front wing is freckled with specks of red, orange and white,
The dark borders of the viceroy's wings parry only a single row of white dots, What’s more, the two back wings have a dark vein running parallel to the border which the monarch does net have, The white dots bordering the front wings turn around to form an almost perfect question marks .
The beautiful monarch butterfly can be found in almost any part of America every butterfly collector can capture a specimen. The viceroy, it seems, has never manage to get himself over the western mountains. West coast collectors will find him hard to come by.
One sure way to know the monarch from the viceroy is to capture them in babyhood and bring them up yourself. Look for young viceroys in and near poplars east of the Rockies. Throughout the winter they hibernate in rolled up leaves,. The viceroy caterpillar most certainly cannot be confused with any other caterpillar. He is a very blond fellow with a large head, wearing two tiny, fancy horns. You will find him among the poplars, dining on the leaves.
The monarch is a milkweed baby. The pale green egglets hatch in three to five days and start to ding on milkweed leaves. The caterpillars look for all the world like chubby little tigers striped blacks yellow and white,. They wear a pair of longish, droopy feelers on their heads and could never be mistaken for the caterpillar of the viceroy. The monarch goes through a chrysalis stage in a neat green package hanging from the leaf of one of his cherished milk weeds.
Several generations of monarch butterflies grow up through a single summer. When fall comes, the adult butterflies refuse to hibernate for the cold weather. Millions of them collect together to make a long, long trip to warmer climates. On their way south these beauties will often step to rest, covering whole trees with their fluttering wings.