Viceroy

Viceroy 
Limenitis archippus

Wing span: 
2 1/2 to 3 3/8  inches 

Caterpillar hosts plants: 
catkins and leaves of willows, Salix; poplars, cottonwood, and aspen, Populus; apple, Malus; plum and wild cherry, Prunus

Adult food:  
early season when few flowers are available: aphid honeydew, carrion, decaying fungi, dung, sap, rotting fruit; later nectar of:  aster, Aster; thistle, Cirsium; goldenrod, Solidago; Joe-pye weed, Eupatorium; milkweed, Asclepias

Habitat: 
open or shrubby areas including, lake and swamp edges, roadsides, valley bottoms, wet meadows, willow thickets  

Notes:  
males perch or patrol to locate females, females lay eggs in twos or threes at the tip of host leaves, hibernate as third-stage caterpillars, puddles, mimics the poisonous monarch.