Description: 2 5/8-3" (67-76
mm). Above and below, rich, russet-orange with black veins, a
black line usually
curving
across hindwings (lower wings), white-spotted black borders,
and white spots surrounded by black in diagonal band across forewings(upper
wings) tip.
Color
ranges
from
pale tawny in Great Basin to deep, mahogany-brown in Florida.
Life Cycle: Egg compressed oval. Caterpillar,
1-1/4" (25-32
mm), mottled brown or olive with saddle-shaped patch on back; fore
parts humped; 2 bristles behind head. Chrysalis, to 7/8" (22
mm), also brown and cream-colored with brown, rounded disk projecting
from back. Willows (Salix) are preferred host plants but also
poplars and aspens (Populus), apples (Malus), and cherries and
plums (Prunus).
Flight: 2, 3, or more broods depending upon latitude; April-September
in middle latitudes, later in South. Sometimes a distinct gap between
broods, with no adults for some weeks in mid- to late summer.
Habitat: Canals, riversides, marshes, meadows, wood edges, roadsides,
lakeshores, and deltas.
Range: North America south of Hudson Bay, from Great Basin eastward,
and west to eastern parts of Pacific States.
Discussion: In each life stage, the Viceroy
seeks protection through a different ruse. The egg blends with
the numerous galls that afflict
the willow leaves upon which it is laid. Hibernating caterpillars
hide themselves in bits of leaves they have attached to a twig.
The mature caterpillar looks mildly fearsome with its hunched
and horned foreparts. Even most birds pass over the chrysalis,
thinking
it is a bird dropping. The adult resembles
the distasteful Monarch. In flight, the Viceroy flaps frenetically
in between brief glides.
