When I found my first Queen Butterfly in my yard, I knew it wasn't a Monarch, because it was more red. I also knew we had both Queen and Viceroy Butterflies in the area, and possibly Soldier Butterflies too. Which was it? This page is designed to help identify which red butterfly is which.

How to tell these butterflies apart at a glance:

The Monarch is easy; it's orange:

The Viceroy has triangular white dots under it's wings. Underneath it's back wings there is a black line shaped like a C that opens toward the body of the viceroy butterfly. From the top, the Viceroy has dark scales along the wing veins giving it a stained glass window appearance. On top, it's white dots are surrounded by black scales.

The Queen and Soldier butterflies are very similar. If they perch with their wings closed, your ID is easy. The solder has pale white blotches under it's wings, and the queen does not.

The butterflies don't always sit still and let you stare at them, so another clue to consider is their host plant. Which host plants grow near you? Have you found a caterpillar?

Viceroy Butterflies lay eggs on Willow.

Monarch and Queen Butterflies lay eggs on Milkweed. The Soldier uses Milkweed too, but it does not seem to like the red-orange Asclepias curassavica milkweed that most of the stores around me carry.

I haven't found any place that sells our native Florida Milkweeds that the Soldier will lay eggs on, but I have seen a Soldier Butterfly near White Vine Milkweed (not a native, but easily found along canals). I'm still looking for the caterpillar.

Speaking of caterpillars, here are the Monarch (left) and Queen (above) and right.

The Monarch caterpillar has two sets of threadlike tubercles {Thanks Meg P. for letting me know that those appendages are called tubercles!}, while the Queen  caterpillar has three sets.