Look who posed for me in my back yard:
I believe this is a Painted Lady (Vanessa cardui), a common migrating butterfly that winters here in the Sonoran desert.
I can't help but think its coloring and patterning could be Batesian mimicry, where a perfectly edible species mimics the appearance of a poisonous or nasty-tasting species (in this case the monarch butterfly), thus deterring would-be predators.
Whatever the case, it's beautiful.
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