Queen (University of Arizona Pollinator Field Guide)

Queen

Danaus gilippus

Who am I? ³

~royal trumpet noises~
I am Danaus gilippus, otherwise known as the Queen butterfly. Whether I am truly a queen or not is dependent of our other pollinator friends, and the humans of course! I am a close relative to the Monarch butterfly (Danaus plexippus), whose name also signifies royalty. The main difference between us is that the upperside of my wings do not have those bold black veins that they have, but our undersides look fairly similar. Also like Monarchs, our caterpillars usually grow up on milkweeds and plants from the Apocynaceae family. These plants typically carry cardiac glycosides, which is a toxin that we store in they will store in their bodies all through the rest of their lives. This toxin makes us a nasty treat to whoever decides to get a taste of us, making our species practitioner of Müllerian mimicry. As the Play-Doh commercial once said, we are "fun to play with, but not to eat".

Quick facts ³

Common name: Queen

Scientific name:Danaus gilippus (Cramer 1776)

Characteristics:

Wing span: 2 5/8 - 3 7/8 inches (6.7 - 9.8 cm)
Upperside: chestnut brown, black border, small white dots on border, scattered white dots on forewing apex
Underside: prominent black veins, similar to a Monarch
Male hindwing has a black scale on the upperside
Overall similar to Monarch, but lacks the prominent black veins on upperside of wings and is a darker chestnut color
Caterpillars have THREE pairs of "tentacles" on their body (Monarch caterpillars have two)
Lays single egg on leaf / stem / flower buds

Host plant: Milkweeds and milkweed vines. In Alabama they have also been observed to eat Gulf Coast Swallow Wort

Nectar plant: Variety of flowers, including milkweeds, fogfruit, and shepherd's needle. In Texas they have been observed to probe the bases of grasses when food is scarce

Preferred habitat: Open, sunny areas

Distribution: S. United States, Central America to Panama, West Indies

Flight times: Can be all year in S. United States, Jul.-Aug. in northern regions. See seasonality: https://www.inaturalist.org/taxa/51743-Danaus-gilippus

Read more about us here: https://animaldiversity.org/accounts/Danaus_gilippus/

Where can you find me on campus? ³

There is a line of milkweeds planted behind the Chemistry building, in front of the small parking area is beside Shantz. Queen caterpillars are most likely to be found in this region feeding on these plants. As for the adult they do require nectar from flowers per usual, but they may also be spotted near and on plants such as thoroughworts, rattleboxes, heliotropes, and groundsel bushes, which produce pyrrolizidine alkaloids (a compound that the adults use to derive a pheromone for mating called danaidone). These plants may or may not appear on campus depending on what is planted at the moment.