Queen (butterfly)

Queen (butterfly)

The Queen Butterfly (Danaus gilippus) is a North and South American butterfly in the family Nymphalidae (the brush-foots) with a wingspan of 2.75–3.25" (70–88mm). It is orange or brown with black wing borders and small white forewing spots on its dorsal wing surface, and reddish ventral wing surface fairly similar to the dorsal surface. The ventral hindwings have black veins and small white spots in a black border. The male has a black androconial scent patch on its dorsal hindwings.

This species is possibly a close relative to the similarly-colored Soldier Butterfly (or "Tropic Queen"; Danaus eresimus); in any case, it is not close to the Plain Tiger (Danaus chrysippus) as was long believed. There are about 10 recognized subspecies (Smith et al. 2005). As with other North American Danaus species, it is involved in Müllerian mimicry with the Viceroy butterfly (Limenitis archippus) where the two co-occur.