Viceroy Butterfly

My favorite butterfly! Did you know The Monarch, Queen, and Viceroy butterflies all have similar color patterns to keep predators from eating any of the three species? This is an excellent example of "Mullerian mimicry" because these species have toxic chemicals making them undesirable to predators because of the bad taste and horrible stomach pains that follows eating one. The Viceroy is found throughout most of North America, from Southern Canada into Northern Mexico and from the east to west coasts. You usually can find them in floodplains, canals, riversides, marshes, meadows, wood edges, lakeshores, deltas, and roadside ditches.. Just about anywhere!!  Unfortunately it is listed as endangered within the Okanagan and Similkameen valleys of British Columbia, Canada.