I was out with my camera early one morning, and along came a monarch butterfly. I've seen several fluttering by the past few weeks, but never one that sat still for more than a second! This one picked a joe-pye weed blossom, and just sat there, stretching its wings back and forth. So finally I got my summer picture of a monarch. On the first picture below you can clearly see two swellings in the black veins closest to the body, near the bottom end of the body. These mark it as a male.
In this side view you can see the double row of round white spots on the outer edge of the back underwing. You can also see that there is no black vein cutting at right angles across the wings. These features mark it as a monarch rather than the otherwise very similar viceroy.
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