The North American Monarch might be the most commonly known Monarch butterfly, but did you know that this is not the only Monarch in the world? There is also the African Monarch, Indian Monarch, Jamaican Monarch, and Southern Monarch. The five Monarchs are all part of the same genus, but are classified as different species. As you can see in the pictures below, they all have the the distinctive orange and black color that Monarchs are known for, with some slight variations.
North American Monarch (Danaus plexippus)
The scientific name of the North American Monarch is Danaus plexippus. If you’re looking for extra credit, the complete scientific classification of the North American Monarch is as follows:
- Kingdom: Animalia
- The kingdom Animalia includes all animals.
- Phylum: Arthropoda
- Arthropods are invertebrate animals having an exoskeleton (external skeleton), a segmented body, and paired jointed appendages.
- Class: Insecta
- Insecta, or insects, are hexapod invertebrates and the largest group within the arthropod phylum.
- Order: Lepidoptera
- Lepidoptera is an order of insects that includes butterflies and moths.
- Family: Nymphalidae
- This is the largest family of butterflies.
- Genus: Danaus
- The Danaus genus includes 12 butterfly species: African Monarch (Danaus chrysippus); Indian Monarch (Danaus genutia); Jamaican Monarch (Danaus cleophile); North American Monarch (Danaus plexippus); Southern Monarch (Danaus erippus); common tiger (Danaus melanippus); dorippus tiger (Danaus dorippus); Ismare tiger (Danaus ismare); lesser wanderer (Danaus petilia); Malay tiger (Danaus affinis); queen (Danaus gilippus); and tropical queen (Danaus eresimus).
- Species: D. plexippus
Researchers have found that the Danus plexippus species of Monarch originated in North America, but over time, it has found its way to Central America, northern South America, Australia, New Zealand, the Pacific Islands, northeastern Africa, and eastern Europe.
Take a moment and look at the picture above. Now imagine that the orange on its wings is white. There is a subspecies of the Danus plexippus that is white instead of the signature orange color. Its scientific name is Danus plexippus form nivosus. It is more commonly known as the “white morph”.
The white morph is primarily only found on the Hawaiian island of Oahu. As the story goes, some time in the mid 1960s, two species on bulbuls (songbirds) were introduced to the island. The bulbuls are insectivores, meaning they eat insects, and hunt larvae (caterpillars), pupae (chrysalis), and even resting Monarch butterflies; they rarely eat Monarch butterflies in flight. In case you didn’t know already, Monarch caterpillars, and butterflies are somewhat poisonous so birds normally do not eat them. As caterpillars, the only food they eat is milkweed, which contains toxins. Those toxins get absorbed into their tissue which makes them poisonous to birds and other animals. This is one of their defense mechanisms. Somehow the bulbuls seem to have an immunity to these toxins and learned that the orange butterflies (Monarchs) are safe to eat. So sometime after the bulbuls were introduced onto Oahu, the Monarch somehow managed to change its orange coloring to white. These “white morphs” have a higher survival rate than the normal orange Monarch because the bulbuls do not eat them, although it is unclear why. A couple of theories are that the bulbuls have learned that the orange Monarchs are safe to eat, or that the white morphs tend to blend into the foliage more than the orange ones. It is estimated that the white morph makes up about 10% of the Monarch population on the island.
African Monarch (Danaus chrysippus)
In addition to African Monarch, the Danaus chrysippus is also called the ‘plain tiger’ and ‘African queen’. It can be found throughout Africa.
- Kingdom: Animalia
- Phylum: Arthropoda
- Class: Insecta
- Order: Lepidoptera
- Family: Nymphalidae
- Genus: Danaus
- Species: D. chrysippus
Indian Monarch (Danaus genutia)
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Also called the ‘common tiger’ and the ‘striped tiger’, the Indian Monarch is one of the common butterflies in India.
- Kingdom: Animalia
- Phylum: Arthropoda
- Class: Insecta
- Order: Lepidoptera
- Family: Nymphalidae
- Genus: Danaus
- Species: D. genutia
Jamaican Monarch (Danaus cleophile)
The Jamaican Monarch can be found in the Dominican Republic, Haiti, and Jamaica.
- Kingdom: Animalia
- Phylum: Arthropoda
- Class: Insecta
- Order: Lepidoptera
- Family: Nymphalidae
- Genus: Danaus
- Species: D. cleophile
Southern Monarch (Danaus erippus)
The Southern Monarch can be found in South America, mainly in Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Chile, Paraguay, Peru, and Uruguay. The DNA of the Southern Monarch is nearly identical to that of the North American Monarch, but the two species are not compatible.
- Kingdom: Animalia
- Phylum: Arthropoda
- Class: Insecta
- Order: Lepidoptera
- Family: Nymphalidae
- Genus: Danaus
- Species: D. erippus