The same or different? What do you think?
(Click pictures to enlarge and study)
"Every man is a borrower and a mimic, life is theatrical and literature a quotation" ~ Ralph Waldo EmersonToday was a perfect day for butterflies... pleasantly warm with a small breeze and low humidity... at least low for here.. under 50%. At one point during the afternoon there were four different varieties of butterflies on my blue caryopteris... all at the same time. I spotted a new variety in our garden... common to the area but not seen here, or at least I don't think so.... well... maybe it is a new variety... hmm. This is where the test comes in. Are these the same butterflies? Male versus female perhaps? The adults find nectar on the same plants... a lot of different butterflies do too.
Which one is which?
So, are they the same... are they different and if so.. what makes them different? Look closely and decide... before clicking on the "read more" below... the answer is there.
These are totally different species of butterfly but they look almost alike. One mimics the markings and color of the other as a protective mechanism. The toxins from milkweed are concentrated in the Monarch caterpillar and remain in the adult butterfly; this renders them a poison pill to birds and usually after eating one they will learn to "stay away"!!! Neither the caterpillar nor the adult of the other species is toxic to anything... but the birds don't know that!
In the first picture... the butterfly on the left is the Viceroy, on the right is the Monarch.
In the second picture ... the Viceroy is on top and the Monarch (a male) is in the bottom frame.
Now... who got all the questions correct? Go ahead.. grade your own papers and don't cheat now!
(end of post)
12 comments:
Isn't nature amazing??!! I could've sworn they were all the same!
I got it wrong!
Such beautiful visitors to our gardens!
Thanks for sharing the facts!
They are gorgeous! I did notice the darker, wider veins/wing markings in one of them.
i knew they were slightly different, but i cheated to find the difference. after i looked at the chart the difference jumped out of the photo at me. this is really good post.
i could not tell with the first set of butterflies, but I could clearly see the diffrence in the second ones!! The black markings are very different, though the colore are the same. Cute test! Guess I get a C!
They remind me of Tiffany lamps. Still waiting to see one this year. http://looseleafnotes.com
What a perfect post. I have long known about these Monarch lookalikes but never knew how to tell them apart from the real Mckoys... now I know. Thanks. And Beautiful photos.
the banana trees get one bunch once a year, and if he had acre of them they would all get ripe at the same time. they are not ready to cut one at a time until the whole bunch forms. the top ones stay small and get a little bigger as the bottom fills out, until it is a really large and heavy bunch.
You said that you ran out of milkweed for the monarch caterpillars - did you drive along country roads, and stop where you saw a lot? I take most of my milkweed photos along the river, where there is a walking path, and along the bike path. I am sure you could go along early in the morning, or at dusk, and gather a bagful and no one would mind.
Joe and I went on the Blue Ridge Parkwaytoday to pick apples at our favorite abandoned orchard and saw half a dozen monarchs flitting about! http://looseleafnotes.com
Ah viceroy and monarch.....good to know the difference...
I believe the two side by side are two different monarchs. We had quite a festive butterfly season here this year, they actually made me pause and stop my mower for fear of distrubing them. You're gifted in capturing nature at its best.
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