Monarch butterfly
• The Monarch butterfly is a milkweed
butterfly. It is perhaps the best known of all
North American butterflies. Since the 19th
century, it has been found in New Zealand, and
in Australia since 1871 where it is called the
Wanderer.
Female
Male
Where does it migrate to?
• The Monarch is famous for its southward
migration and northward return in summer
from Canada to Mexico and Baja California
which spans the life of three to four
generations of the butterfly.
Why does it migrate?
• Monarch butterflies migrate to warmer
climates to escape from the upcoming cold
weather and the food shortage that will result
from the temperature fall.
• That migration is related to three principle
factors: (1) monarch larvae feed exclusively on
species of milkweed; (2) the migratory pattern
is from northeast to southwest; and (3) there
is a long history, extending over eons
Habitat
• The Monarch can be found in a wide range of
habitats such as fields, meadows, prairie
remnants, urban and suburban parks,
gardens, and roadsides. It over winters in
conifer groves
How does it migrate?
• The length of these journeys exceeds the
normal lifespan of most monarchs, which is
less than two months for butterflies born in
early summer. The last generation of the
summer enters into a non-reproductive phase
known as diapause and may live seven months
or more. During diapause, butterflies fly to one
of many over wintering sites. The generation
that over winters generally does not reproduce
until it leaves the over wintering site sometime
in February and March.
• Monarch flight speeds have been measured at
12 miles per hour.
monarch butterfly migration map.
What it eats?
•
•
For starters, the larvae of monarch butterflies eat only
milkweed, this is why the monarch butterfly is dubbed the
'milkweed butterfly'.
In turn, the adult butterflies consume all sorts of different
things including nectar, water and even liquids from some of
the fruits we consume. If you are looking to attract monarch
butterflies to your backyard, simply plant a few fruit-bearing
trees along with plenty of flowers and you should definitely
have yourself a back yard full of monarch butterflies. They
especially like to drink from mushy slices of banana, oranges
and watermelon. There are special butterfly feeders you
could buy that are colored like a flower and come with
special sugar you mix in water to make food for them to eat.
This Butterfly Is Eating Nectar
from a Flower. Do You See the
Proboscis (Feeding Straw)?
A Monarch Caterpillar
will only eat Milkweed
Plants.
Where it lives?
• Monarch butterflies are indigenous to Canada,
the United States, Mexico, and Central and
South America. They live in the Philippines,
Australia, New Zealand, southern Europe, and
northwest Africa, although they are not native
to these places.
Adaptation to its environment
• The monarch butterfly produces a chemical that gives its body a
very bitter taste; which birds hate. They get that taste from the
Milkweed plant which they feed on.
• The Monarch Butterfly (larvae) has adapted itself to eat milkweed
plants, which are very bitter. Because of the food source, the
butterfly begins to taste like milkweed to predators.
• A monarch butterfly's adaptation is using its proboscis, which is the
straw like tube that is used to sip nectar out of a flower.