Viceroy
Viceroy Butterflies resemble Monarchs, except that the Viceroy has a black line across the hindwing and a single row of white dots in the black marginal band.
The viceroy's major defense against predators is mimicry. It has long been accepted that the viceroy is an example of Batesian mimicry, with monarch and queen butterflies serving as models. Batesian mimicry is a type of behavior where a palatable species closely resembles an unpalatable/toxic species in order to avoid predation. However, recent research has argued that the viceroy may actually be unpalatable to avian predators. If that is the case, then the viceroy butterfly displays Müllerian mimicry, with both viceroy and monarch as co-mimics of each other.
The viceroy is a North American butterfly that ranges through most of the contiguous United States as well as parts of Canada and Mexico. The westernmost portion of its range extends from the Northwest Territories along the eastern edges of the Cascade Range and Sierra Nevada mountains, southwards into central Mexico. Its easternmost range extends along the Atlantic and Gulf coasts of North America from Nova Scotia into Texas.
