Red-Spotted Purple

Images of undisturbed subjects in their natural environment. All subject types.

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Marcepstein
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Red-Spotted Purple

Post by Marcepstein »

Nothing special mostly a few snapshots of the Red-spotted Purple caterpillar and an adult (Limenitis arthemis astyanax). Red-spotted purples are considered to be a Batesian mimic of the poisonous pipe vine swallowtail, Battus philenor. The caterpillar was photographed on a host plant - Carolina willow, Salix caroliniana and are a bird poop mimic. Their distribution is mostly central, southern and eastern US.
Red-spotted-Purple-1-larva--2023-01-28.jpg
Red-spotted-purple--2-larva--2023-01-28-1.jpg
Red-spotted-Purple-Butterfly__MG_6522.jpg

MarkSturtevant
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Re: Red-Spotted Purple

Post by MarkSturtevant »

Nice! This species is a favorite of mine. I would see the adults all the time, but have only ever found 1 caterpillar.
Another interesting thing is that a very close relative is the viceroy butterfly (a famous Mullerian mimic to monarch butterflies). The caterpillars look almost identical, but the butterflies of course are very different.
Mark Sturtevant
Dept. of Still Waters

Ramos Kenneth D
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Location: North Carolina

Re: Red-Spotted Purple

Post by Ramos Kenneth D »

Interesting and informative post, along with some nice images!

Marcepstein
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Re: Red-Spotted Purple

Post by Marcepstein »

Hey thanks for looking. Mark is right, the red-spotted and viceroy caterpillars are almost identical. Both use willow as a host plant. I spent some time online searching for distinguishing features but they are close. The only difference I could really see is the head of the viceroy is more thorny and the thorns on the fleshy protrusions are continuous to the base. But other articles suggest that there can be variations in these. What do you think?

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