Reference photo of a pinned Danaus gilippus specimen, upper side

Reference photo

Photo: Yale Peabody Museum; photo by Paul Shamble 2011 · Yale Peabody Museum of Natural History (via GBIF) · CC0 1.0 (cropped and resized). Not the specimen in Lucy’s drawer.

Tray 6 of 39

Danaus gilippus

(Cramer, [1775])

Queen

Order by November 30 for delivery by Christmas.

Your framed specimen is a different individual of the same species, chosen and mounted by Lucy.

  • Nymphalidae
  • Butterfly
  • Species range includes Texas
For young explorers

Queen caterpillars eat milkweed plants.

A rich chestnut-brown butterfly whose caterpillars feed on milkweeds and whose adults visit milkweed flowers for nectar.

Catalog label
Family
Nymphalidae
Subfamily
Danainae
Tribe
Danaini
Where it lives
S.California, Kansas, Texas, Florida, NA.Georgia, Central America, South America

From the catalog of Lucy Garcia Salik, PhD. A mounted specimen from a licensed supplier.

Research notes

From published sources, not from Lucy’s catalog. Each note lists where it came from.

Description

A medium-to-large butterfly whose upper wings are a deep chestnut or mahogany brown. Black edges run around the wings and hold small white spots, and more white spots are scattered near the tip of each forewing. From above, the veins have only faint dark outlines. Underneath, the hindwing is a similar reddish brown with clearly black-lined veins and a spotted black border. Males have a small black patch of scent scales on each upper hindwing, and females lack it. Otherwise the sexes look much alike.

Where it lives

It lives year-round in the far south of the United States, and from there south through the tropical lowlands of the West Indies and Central America as far as Argentina. Beyond that core it turns up as a wanderer. It sometimes settles for a while on the plains, and in rare cases it travels up the Atlantic coastal plain as far as Massachusetts. In the desert Southwest it breeds as far as southeastern California and only very rarely strays farther north. In Florida it is locally common all year in the central and southern parts of the state. Each year it moves into the north of the state, where its numbers can change a lot from one year to the next. It cannot survive freezing weather, which helps explain why it stays in warm regions.

Habitat

It prefers open, sunny ground. Sources list fields, pastures, prairies, roadsides, deserts and dry washes, dunes and other coastal places, marshes, damp meadows, and the edges of waterways. In Florida it is also found in pinelands and scrub. It often appears where people live too, in gardens, parks and neighborhoods.

How the adults behave

Adults drink nectar and seem to favor small flowers, including milkweed blossoms. While feeding they usually sit with their wings closed or only partly open. Males spend the day patrolling to find mates. Adults rest together in groups, and sources describe them roosting in trees. Sometimes large numbers move northward. In the warmest parts of the range adults can be seen in every season. Farther north they appear only in late summer.

Life cycle

The Queen goes through egg, caterpillar, chrysalis and adult stages. Females lay pale cream eggs one at a time on the plants the caterpillars later eat. A grown caterpillar is black with yellow and white crosswise bands, yellow spots, and long, soft, fleshy filaments. The chrysalis is usually green, sometimes pink, with a black-and-gold band. Where the climate allows, there are several generations a year. Caterpillars and adults both carry substances from their food plants that make them taste bad to many predators. Their bold colors act as a warning.

Look-alikes

Monarch: a close relative. The Queen is a darker mahogany brown overall, and from above its wing veins lack the Monarch's heavy black outlines. Soldier: very similar. The Soldier is more orange, with sharper dark veins on the upperside and a band of blotchy pale spots under the hindwing, which the Queen does not have. Queens in the Southwest, and sometimes in the Southeast, have pale veins on the upper hindwing, which the Soldier lacks. Viceroy: in the south a dark form of the Viceroy has the Queen's colors. Because both taste bad to predators, each benefits from looking like the other.

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