Monarchs - Butterflies of the Sabinal River Valley

Monarchs, Queens, and Soldiers
(Milkweed butterflies)

All photos are © and may not be used without permission.

These three species eat various milkweeds as a larva, thereby becoming from distasteful to toxic. Most usual predators avoid them. Though I have seen Monarchs with just the head taken off, no doubt by a bird that knew what part you could eat.

There seems to be a myth about Monarchs being present in the hill country or on the Edwards Plateau in summer. At least for our area here in the south central plateau, it is a myth. There are no resident breeding Monarch here. They occur as spring migrants mid-March to early-May. Some laying eggs as they pass through, generally on Antelope Horn. Then from May to June, maybe even early July, there may be emergences of fresh individuals from those eggs laid as they passed through. These take off and presumedly fly north as the rest of the spring laid egg generation does. Usually the first early fall migrants show up in September, but can show as early as late August. Peak fall migration is about the 3rd week of October. Most years we get a decent few days of flights numbering to the hundreds. Some few years we have had thousands, in 2004 the river found us, and 100,000 went over one October afternoon. But there are no summering or resident breeding Monarch in our area.

This is a Monarch (Danaus plexippus) sunning to warm up.

This is a Monarch in flight, which would have been
really neat if I had gotten the tips of the wings.

Queen (Danaus gilippus) are browner with white spots in the color field, not just in the black, and lacks black vein lines above, only present on ventral hindwing (see below).

Soldier (Danaus eresimus) in Bandera Co., looks about half-way between Monarch and Queen, but much rarer here, it is LTA - less than annual.

~ ~ original page pics below ~ ~

Queen (Danaus gilippus) has black vein lines only on hindwing below.

Monarch (ventral) - note base color of underwings is different on forewing vs. hindwing. Queen is same. Monarch black veins on all wings above and below.

Monarch (dorsal) (Danaus plexippus)

Here together are Queen (left) and Monarch (right)
Danaus gilippus (L) and Danaus plexippus (R).
Note Monarch ventral hindwing and forewing the
color is very different. On Queen they are the same.

The Viceroy (Limenitis archippus) long believed to mimic the distasteful Milkweed eaters above, gaining protection by looking similar to them. They may be distasteful in their own right too. I never had one...