Monarch butterfly

Contributed by Dr. KarenOberhauser Includes: • longevity • birth andgrowth • reproduction • heredity Q. How long do adult monarchslive? A. This depends on when they live (summer or winter). It also varies a lot among individuals (just like it does it humans). In the summer, adults live from 2 to 6 weeks in captivity, and probably about that long in the wild. The ones that migrate live longer, from August or September to about April (although a lot die before this). When people hear this, they say they’d rather be a migratory monarchs, but these butterflies probably face many more risks, and are likely to have a smaller chance of getting offspring into the next generation. These times I told you only refer to the adults. It takes them about a month to go from the egg to adult stage, so we should really add four weeks to those times. After all, we count human childhood in the humanlifespan! Q. How many inches are the eggs of abutterfly? A. They are about the size of a pinhead. How many inches isthat? Q. How many eggs do monarchs have at onetime? A. They only lay one egg at a time, but they can lay many in a single day. (The most I’ve seen is 205 in one day, but this is veryunusual.) Q. What is the most eggs a monarch has everlaid? A. I have no way of knowing how many eggs wild females lay. However, I have studied fecundity (number of eggs laid) by captive females, and they highest number I’ve seen was 1179. The average is about 700, but this varies from year to year. They la...

SAVING THE MONARCH BUTTERFLY Monarch butterflies are as American as apple pie, having once been found in backyards across the country. Generations of schoolchildren have reared monarchs in classrooms, watching in wonder as striped caterpillars transform into large orange-and-black adult butterflies. The monarch's multigenerational migration is legendary — a journey of more than 2,000 miles from Mexico to Canada, undertaken by animals weighing less than a single gram. In monarchs' overwintering groves, there were once so many butterflies that the sound of their wings was described as a rippling stream or a summer rain. Early newspaper descriptions described branches breaking under the weight of so many butterflies and depicted the masses of monarchs as “the personification of happiness.” These iconic beauties have plummeted by 80 percent in the past 20 years. We're working hard to protect them. BACKGROUND Monarchs play a unique and prominent role in the imagination of our country, especially considering they’re insects. These creatures are ambassadors of nature in people's gardens and symbols of summertime outdoors. Yet these butterflies, once a familiar sight, are plummeting toward extinction due to landscape-scale threats from pesticides, development and climate change. That's why the Center is working hard to win them protection under the U.S. Endangered Species Act. Monarchs have declined 85% in two decades. The western population — which overwinters in California as pa...

New Zealand’s most identifiable butterfly is the monarch ( Danaus plexippus). Although found in many places around the world, the monarch is considered a New Zealand native because it became established here on its own. Scientists believe that monarchs were blown from New Caledonia and/or Vanuatu to Australia via cyclones and then blown over to New Zealand a few years later. New Zealand’s most recognised butterfly The monarch is recognisable for two reasons – its main habitat is urban and suburban gardens and it’s our largest common butterfly. We welcome monarchs into our gardens by planting their larval food – milkweed species such as swan plants – and enjoy watching their amazing journey through metamorphosis. Monarchs are more sensitive to cold than our endemic butterflies. They do not survive the harsh winters, so are less common in the far south. Scientific classification Class: Insecta Order Lepidoptera Family: Nymphalidae Subfamily: Danainae Genus: Danaus Species: plexippus The monarch’s life cycle The monarch butterfly has one of the best-known life cycles in the insect world. During mid-summer, the process goes from egg to adult in a month or so. The butterfly has a lifespan of 60–70 days during the summer, but this extends to 6–7 months if the butterfly pupates in autumn. Monarchs (and all butterflies) are sensitive to air temperature. Their growth is the strongest in warm weather, and cooler temperatures signal a change in behaviour. Monarch butterflies in North...

Know about monarch butterflies and their long annual migration from North America's Great Lakes to Mexico In North America themigratory monarch butterfly( D. plexippus plexippus) is a well-known example of a wide-range migrant with anextensivebreeding range. Thousands of these monarchs gather in autumn and migrate southward, sometimes traveling about 3,000 km (1,800 miles) to overwinter on the Scientists’ ability to determine the monarch’s population status has been challenged by difficulties in monitoring populations accurately and by a limited knowledge of naturally occurring annual and geographical population fluctuations. Indeed, estimates of their decline between 2010 and 2020 range from 22 to 72 percent. However, given the D. plexippus plexippus) was listed as an This article was most recently revised and updated by