J, I don't know if this will disappoint or excite you, but that's a Viceroy. You can tell because of the circular arc through the hind wings. I don't have a lot of Viceroy pictures or I would post the difference. You can Google it, though. Personally, I would like to see a Viceroy as I hardly ever see them in my garden. And they're not big on nectaring on flowers all the time, as Dave graphically showed us last month.
And why does everyone keep taunting me with their gorgeous coneflowers? I'm a coneflower killer (hangs head in shame).
But that is a good example of the Viceroy doing its job and fooling predators into thinking it's a Monarch. That's how it protects itself, although I have read recent research that there might be certain chemicals in the Viceroy's host plants that also make it taste bad. When I was new to this, I posted a photo of a Viceroy on that DG site and everyone told me I had a Queen because of the color. Like I said earlier, Viceroys in areas with significant Queen populations will also mimic the color of the Queen. Not sure how my neighborhood has a significant Queen population, but whatever. It was only years later when I was looking back through my photos that I realized I'd seen a Viceroy all that time ago.
But great pictures! I'm still jealous of your ability to grow coneflowers, though. And see Viceroys. But I have the Viceroy caterpillars to look at right now, so it's cool.
