Mar 6, 2025
A really pretty little Viceroy I pinned a while back.
Viceroys are Müllerian mimics* of the larger and similarly colored Monarch Butterflies
(*Müllerian mimicry is a form of honest signaling, I.e., “I’m brightly colored so I taste nasty/am poisonous!” which stands in contrast to Batesian mimicry, which is a false signal, I.e., “I’m brightly colored like that Monarch, so I must be poisonous… 😈”)
#entomology#ecology#nature blog#insect photography#insects#macro photography#nature journal#cute bugs#butterfly#butterflies#monarch butterfly#viceroy butterfly#monarch#viceroy#mimic#pinned insects#orange#orange aesthetic#pink#pink aesthetic#iirc I caught this one with a net on a wetland boardwalk#gothic#wetlands#clinical#lepidoptera#leps
