Viceroys are butterflies that frustrate. They appear to be a species that should be easy to score an excellent image of . . . but look some people, never seem to photograph well.

This Basilarchia archippus was sipping mineral-rich moisture in Leroy Percy State Park, not too far from Greenville, Mississippi.

Isn’t it tempting to confuse it with another very well-known butterfly, the Monarch? But the black line curving along the hindwing identifies our subject as a Vicery.

The southern Viceroys are noticeably more colorful than those found back home in Pennsylvania.

Southern Viceroys were also more approachable and less apt to exasperate the pursuing photographer.

A wetland butterfly, always found in proximity of water.

Jeffrey