---
title: "Plain Tiger Butterfly"
description: "Danaus chrysippus — Insects & spiders. Danaus chrysippus, also known as the plain tiger, African queen, or African monarch, is a medium-sized butterfly widespread in Asia, Australia and Africa."
canonical: https://animalchecklist.com/animal/plain-tiger-butterfly
last_updated: 2026-09-20
---

# Plain Tiger Butterfly

> Danaus chrysippus — Insects & spiders. Danaus chrysippus, also known as the plain tiger, African queen, or African monarch, is a medium-sized butterfly widespread in Asia, Australia and Africa.

- Scientific name: *Danaus chrysippus*
- Category: `insects` (Insects & spiders)
- Habitats: `savanna` (Savanna)
- iNaturalist observations: 45879
- Wikidata: [Q2663244](https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q2663244)
- iNaturalist taxon: [67835](https://www.inaturalist.org/taxa/67835)

## Names

- en: Plain Tiger Butterfly
- de: Kleiner Monarch
- es: Mariposa tigre
- fr: Petit monarque
- nl: Kleine monarchvlinder

## Countries with the most observations

IN (16721), ZA (4587), SG (3562), MV (2192), HK (1901), TW (1477), ES (1439), TH (911), ID (741), IL (540), AE (447), CN (431)

## Summary

Danaus chrysippus, also known as the plain tiger, African queen, or African monarch, is a medium-sized butterfly widespread in Asia, Australia and Africa. It belongs to the Danainae subfamily of the brush-footed butterfly family Nymphalidae. Danainae primarily consume plants in the genus Asclepias, more commonly called milkweed. Milkweed contains toxic compounds, cardenolides, which are often consumed and stored by many butterflies. Because of their emetic properties, the plain tiger is unpalatable to most predators. As a result, its colouration is widely mimicked by other species of butterflies. The plain tiger inhabits…

Text: Wikipedia (en), CC BY-SA 4.0 — https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Danaus_chrysippus

## Photo

![Plain Tiger Butterfly](https://animalchecklist.com/img/animals/plain-tiger-butterfly/medium.jpg)

Photo: kingfisher14 · CC0 · inaturalist — https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/216264541

## Machine access

`GET https://animalchecklist.com/api/v1/animals/plain-tiger-butterfly?lang=en` — see [openapi.json](https://animalchecklist.com/openapi.json).