Monarch

Canon Mark II


The Monarch butterfly (Danaus plexippus) is a milkweed butterfly. It is perhaps the best known of all North American butterflies. 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. The monarch is the only butterfly that migrates both north and south as the birds do on a regular basis. But no single individual makes the entire round trip. Female monarchs deposit eggs for the next generation during these migrations. 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 wintering site sometime in February and March. Monarch butterflies are one of the few insects capable of making trans-Atlantic crossings.
Medicine Creek, NE
 
05/24/2005