northeast-flora-and-fauna

Most of the time when you see a slightly large orange butterfly with black "veins" in NJ, you're seeing a Monarch . But not all the time. Every once in a while you could be seeing a Viceroy  (this this guy). While they look quite similar, there is an excellent field mark to tell the difference. There's a dark line that parallels the back wing; see the circled blue in the 2nd picture. Though both the Viceroy and the Monarch look similar and can be found nectaring on flowers, their lives also have important differences. As you've probably heard by now Monarch caterpillars eat poisonous milkweed plants and become poisonous themselves as a result. Something similar happens with Viceroys, but as caterpillars they eat trees in the willow family , absorb salicylic acid from the trees, and become somewhat poisonous themselves. This is why their relationship with Monarch is now considered to be Mullerian mimicry , where both species benefit from looking like one another. ...

For at least 3 weeks now I've been seeing Red Admirals around. These are butterflies that don't have the long, regular migration cycle of the Monarch butterfly ; instead they basically migrate south when their caterpillar host food - nettles - is no longer available as winter sets in. And then in the spring as we get our nettles back, the Red Admirals migrate north to take advantage of the food source. Don't confuse the Red Admirals with the Red-spotted Admirals ; despite the similar name these are 2 different species that don't even look alike. I talked about Red-spotted Admirals here , and talked about Red Admirals here . These butterflies are fairly common, and if you're in woods and meadows a lot you're likely to run across them. They're considered more human-tolerant than most butterflies. They'll sometimes even land on you, though this is probably about them trying to drink up some sweat than it is raw friendliness. June 2, 2022 at Duke Farms Pho...

Most of our dark, largish butterflies in this area turn out to be swallowtails (black morph Eastern Tiger Swallowtail , Black Swallowtail , Spicebush Swallowtail ), but here's the most commonly seen exception, the Red-Spotted Purple . You could quibble about the name. When I look at them I initially notice the black, then with a better look I'll detect some blue, and after that I'll notice some orange spots. (I suppose calling it the Orange-spotted Black-and-blue might suggest an insect with bruises in the aftermath of an injury.) This is another example of the name being for a subspecies, not a species. The species name is Red-Spotted Admiral , which comprises both the Red-spotted Purple and the White Admiral . (Looking at the 2 subspecies, you'd probably think you were looking at 2 different species since they look fairly different.) It's possible that the Red-spotted Purple has evolved to look similar to a poisonous swallowtail that I haven't seen but which i...