Alabama Butterfly Atlas

Viceroys are consummate mimics.  Although they strongly resemble Monarchs, they are actually closely related to Red-Spotted Purples, also incredible mimics.  The two species are drastically different in coloration, but their shapes are almost identical.  The family ties are also evident in early developmental stages, where egg, caterpillar, and chrysalis are almost indistinguishable.

Much of the classic and well-known literature about Monarch/Viceroy mimicry suggested that palatable Viceroys mimic unpalatable Monarchs in order to gain some protection from predators. However, both butterfly species are at least somewhat distasteful, so each benefits from looking like the other. Viceroy caterpillars taste bad because their bodies hold on to the salicylic acid contained in their willow hosts, making them bitter. Resembles bird droppings in all stages.  May be mottled brown or green; has creamy blotches and two knobby horns on thorax. Partially grown caterpillars from the third brood spend the winter in a specially rolled leaf called a hibernaculum that they silk to a branch. Feeding and development resumes that following spring.

Viceroys fly with a distinctive flap and glide pattern that helps to distinguish them from Monarchs. They are found throughout Alabama, wherever willows grow.