Vivacious viceroy

The cooler weather has brought out lots of butterflies out to play. When Bob Montanaro and I took a walk at the Oslo Riverfront Conservation Area to take photographs to use for the upcoming 2015 volunteer stewardship class, we saw zebra longwing, gulf fritillary, mangrove buckeye, monarch and this viceroy (Limenitis archippus). Unlike the neotropical mangrove buckeye, viceroys are found throughout much of the United States. Coastal plain willow (Salix caroliniana) is their larval food at the Oslo Riverfront Conservation Area and can be found growing along Oslo Road, as well as along the portion of the main trail that goes north to south over the DOT culvert.

The viceroy was on the mosquito control dike not to far from where Bob Montanaro took this fine photograph int the cabbage palm (Sabal palmetto) hammock that you can view on his blog.