Is this a Monarch butterfly?

Comments

4 responses to “Is this a Monarch butterfly?”

1. 

   April 29, 2012

   sillyandrea

   Nope. 🙂 That actually looks more like a moth?

   Reply
   1. 

      April 29, 2012

      Stephane Daury

      It’s pretty.

      Reply
   2. 

      April 29, 2012

      Stephane Daury

      Actually, based on its antennae, I think it might at least be a butterfly.

      The most obvious difference is in the feelers, or antennae. Most butterflies have thin slender filamentous antennae which are club-shaped at the end. Moths, on the other hand, often have comb-like or feathery antennae, or filamentous and unclubbed.[2] This distinction is the basis for the earliest taxonomic divisions in the Lepidoptera: the Rhopalocera (“clubbed horn”, the butterflies) and the Heterocera (“varied horn”, the moths).

      Reply
      1. 

         April 29, 2012

         Stephane Daury

         Yup: a friend found it: Vanessa atalanta

         Reply