 1 monarch butterfly DHJanzen100164.jpg high resolution
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| The monarch butterfly - Danaus plexippus (Danaidae) - is without doubt the best known aposematic (warning colored) butterfly in the US. It is also the best known model for a Batesian mimic, though few people have seen its mimic (the viceroy - Limenitis archippus, Nymphalidae) except in pictures. This is not only because the monarch is today common on roadsides and in old fields (a habitat vastly more widespread than it was when this butterfly was evolutionarily invented) but also because Professor Lincoln Brower (Amherst University) spent his career studying its migration, biology, and toxicity. The monarch is essentially a tropical butterfly (all other members of the Danaidae live in the subtropics or tropics) that has moved into extra-tropical zones as a summer migrant (just as is the case with a very large number of migrant birds). | ||
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