Many species around the world are in danger of extinction, even the monarch butterfly, which is most common in North America. The huge and brightly colored monarch butterfly is one of the most recognizable butterfly species, and they call North America home.
Monarch butterflies have two pairs of wings with a wingspan of 7~10cm. Their wings are dark orange with black edges and textures with white spots on the edges and a light orange underside the wings. Male monarch butterflies have two black spots in the center of their hindwings, while female monarch butterflies do not. These spots are scent glands that help males attract female partners. The veins on the wings of females are thicker than those of males.
Monarch butterfly larvae have yellow, black, and white stripes and can reach up to 5 cm in length before deformation. They have a set of antennae-like tentacles at each end of their body. Butterfly larvae transform into winged adult butterflies in pupae, which are beautiful foam-green with tiny yellow spots on the edges.
Whether monarch butterflies appear in a particular area within their range depends on the time of year. They are one of the few migratory insects that travel long distances between summer breeding habitats and winter habitats, where they spend months inactive.
In summer, they range as far north and south as Canada. In the fall, the eastern population migrates to the cooler alpine regions of central Mexico, and the western population migrates to coastal California, where it spends the winter.
Monarch butterfly populations also live in Hawaii, Puerto Rico, some islands in the Caribbean Sea and New Zealand. For the production of these populations, it is suspected that monarch butterflies may have been blown to these places during storms, or naturally dispersed there by island hopping, or they may have been introduced by humans. These populations are not part of the annual migration of the North American continent.
As with all butterflies, monarch butterflies eat differently in the larval stage than in the adult stage. As caterpillars, monarch butterflies eat only the leaves of mulisette, a wildflower of the genus Marytendon. There are dozens of species of native mulsendons in North America, with which monarch butterflies co-evolved and relied on them for their life cycles.
Milkweed produces glycoside toxins to stop animals from eating them, but monarch butterflies have evolved immunity to these toxins. Black-veined butterflies store toxins in their bodies when eating, making them taste worse, which in turn deters their predators. Even after metamorphosis, toxins remain in their systems, protecting them from becoming adult butterflies.
As adults, monarch butterflies feed on the nectar of a large number of native flowering plants, including muliscus.
Monarch butterflies lay their eggs on mulisette, their only caterpillar host plant. Eggs take three to five days to hatch. After hatching and eating empty egg crates, the nigma-veined goldenrod larvae feed only on mulli tendons. The caterpillar grows and molts several times over a period of about two weeks, then forms a pupae, where it undergoes metamorphosis. After about two more weeks in the pupae, they grow into adult butterflies.
Most adult monarch butterflies only live for a few weeks, searching for food in the form of nectar, looking for mates, and laying eggs on mulis. The last generation of insects that hatch in late summer delay sexual maturity and undergo spectacular migrations in autumn, one of the few. The migratory generation can live to more than eight months.
Monarch life cycle and migration begins in monarch butterflies' wintering grounds in Mexico (eastern population) and in central to southern coastal areas of California (western population).
Around March, the wintering monarch butterflies begin their journey north. Once migration begins, monarch butterflies become sexually mature and mate. The female begins to look for the muli plant to lay eggs. After mating and spawning, adult butterflies die and their offspring continue to migrate north. It takes three to five generations to reproduce in other parts of the United States and southern Canada until the last generation of each year hatches and returns to its wintering grounds.
Monarch butterfly migration is one of nature's greatest phenomena. Monarch butterflies know the right direction to migrate, even if these migrating individuals have never traveled before. They follow an inner "compass" that points them in the right direction each spring and fall. A monarch butterfly can fly thousands of kilometers.
Since the 90s of the 20th century, the number of monarch butterflies has declined by about 90%. In the United States and Mexico, monarch butterflies face habitat loss and fragmentation. For example, more than 90% of grassland ecosystems along the Central Migration Route corridor of the eastern monarch butterfly have disappeared, and they have been converted into intensive agriculture or urban development.
Herbicides are also a danger, killing both the native nectar plants on which adult monarch butterflies depend and the mulisette that the larvae serve as hosts. At the same time, herbicides kill monarch butterflies. Climate change alters migration times and weather patterns, posing risks to monarch butterflies during migration and wintering.
Planting local native species is the best option to help monarch butterflies, which co-evolve with native plants and their life cycles are synchronized with each other.
Because of the risk of spreading disease, limiting healthy genetic diversity and bypassing natural selection, the National Wildlife Federation does not support the captive breeding of monarch butterfly caterpillars or the large-scale release of commercially farmed butterflies. #Wonderful Animals# #Animals#
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