Monarch Butterflies (Interesting Facts)
- Depending on the weather, the caterpillar stage goes on for 9-14 days.
- The caterpillar can eat a whole milkweed leaf in less than 5 minutes. They gain 2700 times their original weight.
- A black spot on an inside surface of its hind wing distinguishes the male monarch. Females do not have the spot.
- Wings flap slower than other butterflies 300-720 times a minute.
- They can see UV light.
- They can lay up to 250 eggs a day at a rate of 1 at a time. In captivity, witnesses counted 1179.
- They fly 12-25 miles an hour.
- They use updrafts or warm air called thermals and glide as they migrate to preserve energy.
- They go to Mexican Oyamel Fir Forest in Michoacán hills.
- Then in Spring, they go North to Eastern US in search of milkweed.
- The females will lay eggs on a milkweed and cycle continues until the 4th generation starts the return migration to complete the cycle North.
- In 1980 the Mexican authorities converted 62 square miles of forest in the Sierra Madres to a Biosphere reserve home to hundreds of millions of Monarchs in winter. They extended that to 217 acres in 2000.
- During migration, you may find 10’s of thousands on a single tree in certain migratory paths.
- Monarchs west of the Rockies go to Mexico.
- Monarchs can survive below freezing if they stay dry if they get wet and it freezes they die.
- A Monarch was recorded at 11,000 feet by a pilot. Most birds fly below 500 feet. Hot air balloons only go to 200 feet. Even songbirds only go to 2000-4000.
Butterfly Life Cycle
There are 4 generations. 4 separate butterflies that complete a year cycle. After that, they start over commencing the primary stage of the first generation.
Stage 1 (February to March)
Locate a mate, search for a place to lay eggs.
Stage 2 (March-April)
Lay eggs on leaves of milkweed, the larva eat, grow and metamorphose into a chrysalis.
Stage 3 (May-June)
Third generation butterflies live out a life cycle like the first generation. They then perish in about fifteen to fifty days after metamorphosing into monarch adult butterflies.
Stage 4
This generation repeats the process the other 3 generations of monarch underwent, but with 1 crucial difference of traveling to Mexico. They live 6-8 months until they get ready to undertake the return migration. The 4th generation is the only ones that can migrate. First 3 generations barely survive beyond 6 weeks after emerging from their pupas.
