A Myth About Monarchs
How does the viceroy butterfly mimic the monarch?
Interesting Facts in Easy English
Pre-Listening Vocabulary
- ingest: to eat or drink
- tell apart: to distinguish a difference between people and things
- hind: back
- non-toxic: not poisonous
- resemble: to look alike
- mimicry: a survival technique where one species evolves to resemble another species
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A Myth About Monarchs
Comprehension Questions
- Why don’t birds usually eat more than one monarch in a lifetime?
- What are the differences between the viceroy and the monarch butterfly?
- What myth was apparently busted in the 1990s?
Discussion Questions: What other examples of mimicry do you know of in nature?
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A Myth About Monarchs
Monarch butterflies look pretty, but taste horrible. Birds that eat these orange and black butterflies feel so sick they avoid monarchs for the rest of their lives. Those who have ingested a monarch usually avoid the viceroy too. The viceroy and monarch are hard to tell apart.The viceroy is slightly smaller and has an extra black band on its hind wing. For over one hundred years, scientists thought the viceroy was a non-toxic mimic that evolved over time to look like a monarch. This type of survival skill is called Batesian mimicry, after a 19th century naturalist named H.W. Bates. New research that came out in the 90’s suggests that this theory of monarchs and viceroys is a myth. In fact, the monarch and the viceroy are both foul tasting. By resembling each other, both species have a better chance of survival. This type of mimicry is called Müllerian mimicry. Many textbooks and websites continue to describe the viceroy as a Batesian mimic.
- Birds don’t usually eat more than one monarch in a lifetime because monarchs taste horrible and make them feel sick.
- A viceroy is slightly smaller than a monarch butterfly and it has an extra black band on its hind wings.
- In the 1990s scientists discovered that both viceroys and monarchs are foul tasting species. If this is the case, their mimicry is an example of Müllerian rather than Batesian mimicry.
