Download Howdy, BugFans, Viceroy butterflies (Limenitis archippus) are found

Howdy, BugFans,
Viceroy butterflies (Limenitis archippus) are found in the
Family Nymphalidae, the Brushfoot butterflies. This group
is often called the “four-foot” butterflies because they carry
their short front legs tucked up against their body.
Viceroys are famous for being mimics of Monarch
butterflies, of previous BOTW fame. Monarch caterpillars
eat only milkweed foliage, and that makes them both bitter
and toxic. After their first experience with Monarchs, birds
generally leave them – and, by association, Viceroys –
alone (of course, some butterflies die so that birds may
learn). Back to that in a minute.
As Pyle points out in The Audubon Society Field Guide to
North American Butterflies, Viceroys seek protection in
each life stage by disguising themselves as something else.
Eggs resemble galls on willow leaves. There are at least two generations of Viceroys per summer
(depending on your/their latitude); the early broods live out their life cycles in a few months, but the
larvae of the final brood of summer will overwinter as tiny caterpillars, wrapped in leaves of one of their
food plants (willow is favored, but they’ll also eat poplar, aspen and some apple/plum/cherry leaves).
Donald W. Stokes, in A Guide to Observing Insect Lives, describes how the caterpillar shapes a leaf into its
hibernaculum, according to pre-programmed specifications. It eats the leaf from the tip down, sparing the
midrib. Then it rolls the remaining bit of leaf into a cylinder a half-inch long and an eighth-inch wide,
securing it with silk. It lines the inside of the leaf with silk, and, although the leaf is still attached to the
shrub, it wraps silk around the leaf stem (petiole) and secures it with a band around the twig so the leaf
will not fall in autumn.
The caterpillar that emerges in spring has catkins and new
leaves to feed on. As it molts and matures over the next few
weeks, it looks increasingly like a blob of bird poop. For
another champion bird-poop mimic, Google the “Beautiful wood
nymph moth” (remember the quotation marks; the BugLady is
not responsible for the sites you’ll get to if you forget the
quotation marks.) The chrysalis continues the bird-poop
theme. Viceroys are closely related to the Red-spotted
Purple/White Admiral butterfly (Limenitis arthemis) (the Purple
and the Admiral species have beeen “lumped” and are
sometimes called the “Red-spotted Admiral.”). Its caterpillars
overwinter in the same fashion as the Viceroy’s, are also bird-poop mimics, and are so similar to Viceroy
caterpillars that only their mamas can distinguish them for sure.
Viceroys have a jagged black “C-shaped” line through their hind wing that
is lacking in the larger Monarchs. Monarchs tend to flap and soar, holding
their wings up in a wide “V,” while Viceroys fly with faster wingbeats, and
when they soar, their wings are held more horizontally. Viceroys enjoy
shrubby and open fields and wet meadows where they feed on nectar from
a variety of flowers. According to The Butterflies of Illinois, the diet of
adults changes as the season progresses, and they chow down on ripe
fruit, sap flows, carrion, poop, and aphid honeydew. Males bask on
leaves, scanning their horizons for females, and they will chase intruding
males for considerable distances up into the sky.
The theory has always been that Viceroys have enjoyed a
Lepidopteran “Get-Out-of-Jail-Free” card due to their
resemblance to Monarchs. Recent research suggests that
Viceroys may also be distasteful, probably because willow
leaves are very bitter. In that case, Monarchs and Viceroys
are mimicking each other.
As mimics go, the Viceroy is a flexible one. Monarchs do not
occur in the far southeastern or southwestern United States
during the summer. There, Viceroys’ upper wings are a rich
brown, mirroring a close Monarch kin, the resident Queen
butterfly.
The BugLady