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Photo#1261109
Eastern CA Queen - Danaus gilippus - male

Eastern CA Queen - Danaus gilippus - Male
Antelope Springs, Inyo County, California, USA
July 11, 2016
Found here nectaring on a flower head of Mojave Thistle (Cirsium mohavense). Nearby were many clumps of Asclepias fascicularis, which is among the milkweed host plant species listed in Scott(1) for Danaus gilippus.

Note the diagnostic white spots in the brown-orange portion of the forewing (lacking in monarchs).

This can be seen to be a male from the small, elongate marking (usually appearing black, but with much white glistening in the photo) visible here on the left hind wing near the far end of the abdomen. This structure is called a "wing-pocket gland" in Scott(1) (cf. "androconium"). It produces an aphrodisiac pheromone called danaidone which the male Queen synthesizes from pyrrolizidine alkaloids ingested while nectaring on heliotropes or other plants. The widespread Heliotropium curassavicum may grow in the area.

The male Queen has an eversible pencil (i.e. cluster) of hairs within the tip of its abdomen which, before courtship, it brushes against the wing-pocket glands to sop up the danaidone aphrodisiac. It then wafts the hair-pencil in front of a female Queen's antennae to induce mating. Read all about it on pg. 232 of Scott(1). [Note: Scott uses the abbreviation "uph" for "upper hind".]

I don't see these so often in CA...though perhaps I would if I spent more time around milkweeds in the eastern desert parts of the state.

Images of this individual: tag all
Eastern CA Queen - Danaus gilippus - male Eastern CA Queen - Danaus gilippus - male