Danaus

To be clear, most of the large, orange-and-black butterflies known as Danaus plexippus are doing just fine.

Fish and Wildlife Service to list the monarch butterfly, Danaus plexippus plexippus, as a threatened species to give it more habitat protection.

However, the subspecies known as Danaus plexippus plexippus is the only one that performs the great North American migration—and these butterflies are increasingly under threat.

My second experience turned out to be my favorite — a hike through the Danaus Ecological Reserve.

“Many Indian taxonomists continued to erroneously refer to the Indian populations of Danaus genutia as Danaus plexippus.”