The short answer to this is, nothing. Ignoring in this story the wild ups and downs of Monarch populations in the Northeast even in good times and the fact that it was prob. an uncommon butterfly prior to European settlement here, the mimicry system of these two species is Mullerian rather than Batesian. Say what? Until the 1990s it was thought this mimicry was Batesian. This is when a palatable species mimics one that is not. The viceroy was thought to be palatable. However, it turns out is is not. This system is actually Mullerian, which is mimicry when the species involved are all unpalatable. So now the question becomes - who mimics whom?! Just a note that we'd love all of your Monarch and other butterfly sightings to be added to our amazing new system, e-Butterfly. It is a lot like eBIrd. Check it out at http://www.e-butterfly.org/. And we have a great discussion group for butterflies and moths at if anyone is interested at http://list.uvm.edu/cgi-bin/wa?A0=VTLEPS. Kent Date: Sun, 7 Sep 2014 20:49:21 +0000 From: michael T Quinn <[log in to unmask]> Subject: Monaech Viceroy ? UVB: What effect will the decline in Monarch butterfly numbers have on the Viceroy butterfly? Michael T. Quinn P. O. Box 639 Windsor, VT 05089 802.674.2522 "Only Connect..." ____________________________ Kent McFarland Vermont Center for Ecostudies PO Box 420 | Norwich, Vermont 05055 802.649.1431 x2 [image: VCE Logo] <http://www.vtecostudies.org/> <http://vtecostudies.wordpress.com/> <https://www.facebook.com/pages/Vermont-Center-for-Ecostudies/56930912454> <https://twitter.com/VTEcostudies> **************************************************************** To post messages, send e-mail to: [log in to unmask] Set your e-mail application to PLAIN TEXT ONLY to post messages. To contact the list owner: [log in to unmask] ---------------------------------------------------------------- Web based archives and subscription management are available at: http://listserv.dartmouth.edu/Archives/uv-birders.html ****************************************************************