Butterfly population records are full of occasional strays.
In the last few years, I’ve had stray
Zebra
longwings and
American
painted ladies visit my garden. This year, a Queen butterfly visited a
nursery not far from me (about 6 miles as the butterfly flies) and laid a few
eggs. I had the opportunity to raise a few of them at my house using milkweed.
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| Female Queen butterfly |
The Queen (Danaus gilippus) is a member of the Danainae
subfamily, the more familiar member of which is the Monarch. These are known as
the milkweed butterflies and include in the U.S. the Monarch, the Queen, and
the Soldier. The Queen looks most similar to the Monarch when its wings are
closed. When the wings are open, the chestnut brown coloring and the lack of
black lines makes it more distinguishable.
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| Queen caterpillar |
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| Queen chrysalis, darkening |
In the caterpillar stage, they also look similar until you
realize it is has 3 sets of what appear to be tentacles; the Monarch has only
two. The Queen is not as large as the Monarch and the chrysalis, while very
similar, was noticeably smaller. Like the Monarch, the male of the species has unique marks on the hindwings. An
earlier blog of mine has detailed Monarch pictures.
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| The chrysalis bulges just before opening |
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| The newly emerged male |
In researching this butterfly, one of the things mentioned
was that adults roost communally. Of the
four caterpillars that I raised, one was released on Wednesday, two on
Thursday, and the last one on Friday. On both Thursday and Friday, as the new
ones were hardening their wings, an adult flew up to visit.
Whether the Queen butterfly continues to expand from south
Georgia northward on a regular basis remains to be seen. Slight increases in
temperature may contribute. Having people report their sightings would help. I
reported this one at
BAMONA;
the last report near me was June 2017 in
Eatonton.
As for this time – we enjoyed the visit with her and her family very much.
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| Male Queen butterfly, showing markings |
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| The returning Queen (female) waited on purple coneflower |
Queens seem to be much more common further west here in Texas, and even into south Houston. They start appearing on my side of Houston sometime in early fall before the monarchs migrate back through.
ReplyDeleteWow, I will love to go back and look at our butterfly photos. It seems like I remember seeing one with those white dots and wondering what it was! My Dad lived in Rutledge and we would often see butterflies there out in the country. So, either here in Conyers or there.
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