Butterflies - Royalty & Ladies

Royal butterflies? Well, we have a Monarch, a Queen and an Empress. There is an Emperor or two but I haven't seen him, yet. Next, we have very important rulers and commanders like the Admirals and the Viceroy. Lastly, we have the Ladies - American Lady, Painted Lady and West Coast Lady. So far, I have seen only one Lady. I thought I had a picture of the Painted Lady but alas I don't. The difference between the American Lady and Painted Lady is so small, that I had misidentified some of my pictures for awhile.

You can see that some them are closely related when they have the same first Latin or Scientific name.

All of these butterflies are in the Brush-footed family.

Monarch - Danaus plexippus

Queen - Danaus gilippus

Empress Leilia - Asterocampa leilia

American Lady - Vanessa virginiensis

Red Admiral - Vanessa atalanta

White Admiral - Limenitis arthemis arthemis

Red-spotted Purple - Limenitis arthemis astyanax

Viceroy - Limenitis achippus

This is my last butterfly blog for a little while. I will next do a series on Reptiles and Amphibians.

The references and gear I used for this blog are:
Camera: Canon EOS 40D
Lens: Canon EF100-400mm F4.5-5.6L IS USM
Camera: Canon EOS 10D
Lens: Canon EF28-105mm F/3.5-4.5 II USM
Steiner 10x42 Predator Binoculars
Kaufman Focus Guides - Butterflies
Butterflies through Binoculars The East
Butterflies through Binoculars The West
Butterflies of the Great Lakes

All images © MSCI