Insects > Monarch Butterflies > Monarch Butterflies

The King of Butterflies and His Royal Family



Welcome to Monarch-Butterfly.com, the web site for fun facts about monarch butterflies—everything from what they look like, what they eat, where they live, to where to find cool coloring pages and temporary monarch butterfly tattoos, to how to rear your own butterflies in a butterfly garden. There is much to explore and learn here.

Meaning of the Monarch Butterfly’s Names The word “monarch" comes from the Greek words for “one ruler." A human monarch is a king or queen who rules alone, without necessarily having to consult any other person—though good ones have always surrounded themselves with people who could give them good advice. When human monarchs were selected (rather than simply inheriting their positions) they were usually chosen as being the strongest, smartest, and toughest people in their group. Some monarch butterflies are able to fly for a migration of 2500 miles. Most of them can find their ways to their ancestors’ winter homes when they go there, and then find their ways back to the places they left in spring. This ability made them seem like the strongest, smartest, and toughest of all butterflies. In much of their range they are also the biggest butterflies, with wingspans up to four inches (10cm). The monarch was the King of Butterflies in the same sense that the lion was the King of Beasts.



The scientific name for monarch butterflies is Danaus plexippus. Credit for this name goes to Carolus Linnaeus, who invented our modern system for scientific names. The names he used often came from names other scientists had used. The reasons why they chose the names they did were not usually explained and can be hard to guess. The first species described were often named after people in ancient Greek and Roman literature. Danaus and Plexippus were the names of two legendary kings in ancient Greece.



Two other tidbits of trivia may have influenced the naming of this species. During the time when American wildlife was beginning to be studied, and Carolus Linnaeus was working out his taxonomic systems, one of the kings of England was called William of Orange. In addition to King Danaus, another character in Greek literature was Danae, who received a gift of gold coins.



The most common names for this species in Spanish (mariposa monarca) and French (papillon monarque) are similar to its most common name in English.



Another name that has sometimes been used for this species is “Milkweed Butterfly," because the young butterflies eat milkweed leaves and the adults drink milkweed nectar. (Milkweed has white, milky-looking sap.)



Because of its long travels and wide distribution, this butterfly is also sometimes called “The Wanderer." Most monarch butterflies normally live in North America, but storm winds have blown them across the oceans to other continents. They are often found in Australia and southeastern Asia, and sometimes in Africa, Britain, and Europe.



Because of its color, this species has sometimes been called “Black-Veined Brown" or “Common Tiger."











Other Monarchs and Look-Alikes Other species in the genus Danaus are called Tigers, Wanderers, or Monarchs, and D. gilippus, which is found in the central States, is usually called the Queen. Some of these butterflies migrate, but not nearly so far as D. plexippus does. The South American Monarchs look almost exactly like their North American cousins, but have a distinct, incompatible genetic pattern. The Jamaican Monarchs have orange wings with slightly darker, rather than black, wing veins. The species sometimes called African Monarchs have less conspicuous dark veins than the American species, and the species called Indian Monarchs have more conspicuous black veins. The Queens’ wings are usually a duller, browner shade of orange overall, with less noticeable dark veins.



Most butterflies in this genus are orange, black, and white. Some are mostly black. On the Hawaiian island of Oahu about one out of ten monarch butterflies is mostly white, with black veins and patches where other monarchs have them, but white where other monarchs have orange markings. These “White Monarchs" differ from other monarchs only in color.



Monarchs are not closely related to the Tiger Swallowtails, another group of large butterflies whose wings are usually black and lemon-yellow, rather than black and orange-brown. Monarch and Swallowtail caterpillars, like the butterflies, are never confused by people who see them often, but easily confused by people who read descriptions of them. A few Swallowtail species are even bigger than the Monarchs.Most are smaller, and their “tiger" striping does not follow their wing veins (and thus looks more like a tiger’s stripes).



Monarchs are most easily confused with a smaller butterfly in the Admiral group called Limenitis archippus, the Viceroy. While flying, Monarchs and Viceroys look very similar. Both are distasteful (even mildly poisonous) to birds that eat them; each absorbs different toxins from the plants on which they feed. When they are at rest and can be clearly seen, Viceroys have different patterns of wing venation as well as being smaller than Monarchs. Nevertheless they clearly get some survival benefit from their resemblance to the Monarch group; in places where Queen butterflies are common, Viceroys tend to look more like Queens, and in places where only Monarchs are common, Viceroys look like Monarchs.















See how similar this butterfly looks to a Monarch? There are several similar look-alikes





