ON THE WING
Jill Dinsmore

Land of Nursery Rhymes

What can one possibly say about the Monarch Butterfly which has not already been said?  How can one write anything different from what has already been written?  The answer is – it’s probably not possible, but here goes anyway!  The Monarch is without doubt the most recognizable of all butterflies, but it is in danger.  In danger from the loss of habitat. The milkweed, a broad leaf plant, is the one and only host plant to the Monarch Butterfly.  The wide spread use of herbicides is destroying much of the roadside milkweed in hedges and fence rows. Additionally, in Mexico, the winter home of the Monarch, many of the trees and brush has been cleared to make way for development.

The Milkweed Butterfly, another name for the Monarch, lays its eggs on the underside of the milkweed leaf. The female produces approximately 400 pale green eggs which she attaches to the pale green underside of the milkweed leaf.  In three to five days, the eggs hatch into tiny black and white caterpillars.  For the first few days they eat night and day, stopping only for brief rest. On the first day, they are said to consume their own weight in food.  As they grow they change colors with stripes of yellow, orange, white, and black with black horns called filaments. At this point, they each form into a green chrysalis.  In about two weeks a new Monarch butterfly will emerge – damp and limp until it has pumped fluids from its abdomen, through its veins, and into its wings to inflate them and dry out.  This period is the most dangerous for the new Monarch since at this time the toxins obtained by the caterpillar are not in their bodies to protect them from predators.

Monarch Butterflies are noted for their migratory habits.  In the fall, flocks will move southward into California and Mexico.  While resting on these trips, the numerous butterflies can completely cover entire trees.  In the spring they return northward to breeding areas, even into Canada.  However, three to five broods of butterflies may be produced while they are en route, which means that the butterflies that leave Mexico are not the same ones which arrive here.  The new arrivals are the offspring of the Monarchs which wintered in Mexico.

To tell the difference between the female and the male Monarch, the male has more orange and the female tends to be a dull brown.  The male also has an enlarged black spot which is his scent gland on the hind wing and small claspers at the end of its abdomen.  The females will have thicker veins on their wings than the males.

Even though the average life span of the Monarch can be as short as two to five weeks if they emerge in early summer, they can also live for eight or nine months if they are migrating.  So however short or long – Enjoy Them.  They are one of life’s beautiful rewards.

Nope, those orange things to the left are not autumn leaves... they're hundreds of Monarch butterflies!