Critter: Queen butterfly

Courtesy Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum

Name: Queen butterfly, aka Danaus gilippus

Looks: A close relative of the monarch butterfly, queens are medium-sized and generally orange and brown. Queens belong to the brush-footed family of butterflies.

In early stages: Caterpillars feed almost exclusively on the plants in the milkweed family, which are poisonous to most vertebrates. Most larvae are fiercely spined, and their pupae are usually sharply angled and adorned with silver or gold colors.

Specialties: Queens are remarkably strong fliers, migrating great distances every year to roosts in California and central Mexico.

Butterflies are important pollinators, and few of them pose serious threats to economically important plants. In short, they are benign and aesthetically pleasing.