Sea levels were higher, and the entire Amazonas lowland was a vast expanse of brackish swamp that offered limited butterfly habitat. Some researchers believe the southern monarch separated from the monarch's population some 2 million years ago, at the end of the Pliocene.

The South American monarch and the North American monarch may have been one species at one time. This species is found in tropical and subtropical latitudes of South America, mainly in Brazil, Uruguay, Paraguay, Argentina, Bolivia, Chile, and southern Peru. erippus, the southern monarch, was described by Pieter Cramer in 1775. Its range actually extends worldwide and can be found in Hawaii, Australia, New Zealand, Spain, and the Pacific Islands. plexippus, described by Linnaeus in 1758, is the species known most commonly as the monarch butterfly of North America. The three species of monarch butterflies are: Robert Michael Pyle suggested Danaus is a masculinized version of Danaë (Greek Δανάη), Danaus's great-great-granddaughter, to whom Zeus came as a shower of gold, which seemed to him a more appropriate source for the name of this butterfly. Linnaeus wrote: ' Danaorum Candidorum nomina a filiabus Danai Aegypti, Festivorum a filiis mutuatus sunt.' (English: 'The names of the Danai candidi have been derived from the daughters of Danaus, those of the Danai festivi from the sons of Aegyptus.') The Danai festivi formed one of the 'subgenera', containing colorful species, as opposed to the Danai candidi, containing species with bright white wings. Linnaeus divided his large genus Papilio, containing all known butterfly species, into what we would now call subgenera. In the 10th edition of Systema Naturae, at the bottom of page 467, Linnaeus wrote that the names of the Danai festivi, the division of the genus to which Papilio plexippus belonged, were derived from the sons of Aegyptus.

In Homeric Greek, his name means 'one who urges on horses', i.e., 'rider' or ' charioteer'. In 1780, Jan Krzysztof Kluk used the monarch as the type species for a new genus, Danaus.ĭanaus ( Ancient Greek Δαναός), a great-grandson of Zeus, was a mythical king in Egypt or Libya, who founded Argos Plexippus ( Πλήξιππος) was one of the 50 sons of Aegyptus, the twin brother of Danaus. The monarch was originally described by Carl Linnaeus in his Systema Naturae of 1758 and placed in the genus Papilio. The name 'monarch' is believed to have been given in honor of King William III of England, as the butterfly's main color is that of the king's secondary title, Prince of Orange. White morph of the monarch in Hawaii called the white monarch In 2009, monarchs were reared on the International Space Station, successfully emerging from pupae located in the station's Commercial Generic Bioprocessing Apparatus.

The western North American population of monarchs west of the Rocky Mountains often migrates to sites in southern California, but has been found in overwintering Mexican sites, as well. During the fall migration, monarchs cover thousands of miles, with a corresponding multigenerational return north. The eastern North American monarch population is notable for its annual southward late-summer/autumn instinctive migration from the northern and central United States and southern Canada to Florida and Mexico.

Its wings feature an easily recognizable black, orange, and white pattern, with a wingspan of 8.9–10.2 cm ( 3 + 1⁄ 2–4 in) A Müllerian mimic, the viceroy butterfly, is similar in color and pattern, but is markedly smaller and has an extra black stripe across each hindwing. It is amongst the most familiar of North American butterflies and an iconic pollinator, although it is not an especially effective pollinator of milkweeds. Other common names, depending on region, include milkweed, common tiger, wanderer, and black-veined brown. The monarch butterfly or simply monarch ( Danaus plexippus) is a milkweed butterfly ( subfamily Danainae) in the family Nymphalidae.

Expanse synonyms