Yesterday during a break in the drizzly rain, a lovely Monarch Butterfly visited the zinnia patch. This was the first Monarch of the season to visit the Bayou so it was a thrill to watch it. Monarchs are known to travel far in their migrations and it is always nice to have a "pitstop" to refuel and rest a bit. The butterfly was making good use of the "Zinnia Top Diner"! It flitted from flower to flower sipping the sweet nectar as it went.
A Gulf Fritillary was also visiting the zinnias and the two were often on the same bloom. The Fritillary is a faker, however! That butterfly has evolved a lot to look like the Monarch with good reason. Monarch Butterflies are toxic to predators. The toxins are present from the time the critters are caterpillars and are obtained from eating from the host plant. Monarchs prefer to munch on milkweed leaves which contain a toxin that can cause cardiac arrest in predators of the caterpillar or even the butterfly. Predators know to leave the Monarch and go after safer prey. The Gulf Fritillary uses that to its benefit! The orange, black and white coloring confuses predators so they just avoid anything that looks like the Monarch. Another butterfly, the Viceroy, is often confused even by humans! They look almost identical to Monarchs so they are pretty much safe, as well.
I was pondering the fact of mimicry in nature and find that Mother Nature sure has a lot of tricks up her leafy sleeve. A lot of critters take this to their advantage but it is also noticeable in the plant world. Sometimes, things are just not what they seem!
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