Foreign Wanderer
Female, dorsal
Ellura
Klug's Xenica
Female, Wings, upper
 
                      
Foreign Wanderer (Danaus plexippus)Class: Animals (Animalia) - Jointed Legs (Arthropoda) - Insects (Insecta)
Order: Butterflies & Moths (Lepidoptera)
Family: Brown Butterfly (Papilionoidea: Nymphalidae)     iNaturalist Observation
Species: Foreign Wanderer (Danaus plexippus)
This Photo:     Female, underwings
Other names: Monarch or Wanderer

Thank you Alan Melville for confirming the id of this species for us

General Species Information:
Found on Ellura (in the Murray Mallee, SA), the Adelaide Hills and elsewhere
While this butterfly comes from the Americas. It's only food source is the introduced Milkweed.
There is some discussion if it arrives under it's own steam to the Eastcoast of Australia. Even so, it wouldn't be able to propogate without the weed. Regardless, it's not native to SA.

Copyright © 2011-2024 Brett & Marie Smith. All Rights Reserved. Photographed 28-Apr-2011
This species is classed as If (Foreign Introduction)