Viceroy Butterfly

Limenitis archippus

Caterpillar hosts: Viceroy caterpillars eat the leaves of trees in the willow family (Salicaceae) including willows (Salix), poplars and cottonwoods (Populus).
Adult food: Early in the season, when few flowers are available, viceroys feed on aphid honeydew, carrion, dung, and decaying fungi. Later generations feed more often at flowers, favoring composites including aster, goldenrod, joe-pye weed, shepherd's needle, and Canada thistle.
Habitat: Viceroy butterflies need moist, open or shrubby areas such as lake and swamp edges, willow thickets, valley bottoms, wet meadows, and roadsides. This species is usually hard to catch because it likes to land in the upper branches of cottonwoods and other streamside trees.

Note: Birds tend to leave this butterfly alone as it mimics the noxious Monarch Butterfly in appearance.

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