The Monarch Butterfly : The Life Of The Monarch Butterfly

The monarch butterfly, as known as Danaus plexippus, is often called the milkweed butterfly because its larvae eat the milkweed plant. They are also sometimes called "royalty butterflies" because their family name comes from the daughter of Danaus, ruler of Argos. There are many other interesting facts about this butterfly including its anatomy and life cycle, where the butterfly lies on the food chain, the migration from Canada to Mexico, why the butterfly is being threatened, and lastly, what is being done to help the butterfly.

     The monarch butterfly, as known as Danaus plexippus, is often called the milkweed butterfly because its larvae eat the milkweed plant. They are also sometimes called "royalty butterflies" because their family name comes from the daughter of Danaus, ruler of Argos. There are many other interesting facts about this butterfly including its anatomy and life cycle, where the butterfly lies on the food chain, the migration from Canada to Mexico, why the butterfly is being threatened, and lastly, what is being done to help the butterfly.

The monarch butterflies differ in migration than the any other species that migrate as well.The reason why the monarchs are different than other species is that they later come back to their previous winter location while other species stay.Monarch Butterflies migrate over 300,000 miles, for they can not stand the harsh cold temperatures. Every fall, they come from northern United States of America and migrate to southern United States of America, and at times they migrate all the way down to Mexico. Since monarch butterflies have” a complicated life cycle”(Migration) monarchs that have emerged in the winter do not yet reproduce until they’re in the summer or spring season.On the other hand, monarch butterflies that are emerged in the summer or springtime reproduce rapidly. In addition, it’s important for the monarchs to know when they have to migrate to the south and back to the winter.

Pre-assessment: Ask students to tell you what they know about the life cycle of butterflies. After brainstorming, categorize the different ideas by the students. Highlight the main categories and ideas that emerged during the

I enjoyed my many years of participation in the Monarch Larvae Monitoring Project. Milkweed is the larvae's host plant. Unfortunately common milkweed (asclepias syriaca) has not done well

(http://www.washingtonpost.com/news/morning-mix/wp/2015/08/05/are-monarch-butterflies-really-being-massacred-a-new-study-says-its-a-lot-more-complicated-than-it-seems/) Monarch butterflies are one of the only two-way migratory species other than birds. Every spring, they embark on a 3,000 mile journey north from the mountains of Mexico and return in the fall. The migration can make it a little harder to accurately estimate population numbers; even so, the severity of the decline is no accounting slip-up.

Migration-Monarchs spend their winter hibernation in mexico and southern california where it is hot all year long because their fragile bodies can’t withstand the cold.Also, the larval food plants do not grow in their winter overwintering sites, so the spring generation must fly back north to places where the plants are plentiful.

Before you learn about Indiana butterflies, you’ll need to know some butterfly basics. First, butterflies are insects with wings made of colorful scales, a curled up mouthpart called a proboscis, and clubbed antennae, with thick ends like baseball bats. Butterflies are part of an insect order, a category level entomologists (people who study insects) use to organize insects into groups, called Lepidoptera, along with moths. The name Lepidoptera comes from the Greek words for “scale” (lepido) and “wing” (pteron).

The Monarch butterfly is the most familiar butterfly in North America. Its wings feature an easily recognizable black, orange, and white pattern, with a wingspan of 8.9–10.2 cm (3½–4 in). The Viceroy butterfly is similar in color and pattern, but is markedly smaller and has an extra black stripe across each hind wing. These butterflies can be throughout the United States and also in Canada and Mexico. These butterflies can produce up to 4

“Overview” states, “The monarch butterfly is known by scientists as Danaus plexippus, which in Greek literally means ‘sleepy transformation’ ” (World Wildlife Fund). They get this name because of the way they hibernate and evolve. What many people do not know about these insects is that they have iconic black, monarch orange and white wings that make it easy for predators to identify that

They are positively charged, bees and other insects use the magnetic force around the earth. They also use UltraViolet (sun) . Bees and other insects use the sun and electromagnetic waves to navigate. Some other insects use cryptochromes to know the ways around the earth.

Environmental factors such as the decrease in day length, cooler temperature and aging milkweed trigger the monarch to begin its migration, although the precise environmental trigger that initiates migration is not well understood. When spring arrives, they become reproductively active, mate and leave Mexico to re-migrate north. During the remigration northward the females lay fertilized eggs on newly emerged milkweeds in the southern parts of the United States (Reppert and others 2010). Their offspring’s will also continue the migration up northward to repopulate the northern section of the monarch habitat range. Even though the monarch migration is repetitive and cyclic in nature, their migration cycle is multigenerational. It takes about two generations of spring and summer butterflies that are following the progressive northward emergence of milkweeds to repopulate the entire range and therefore completing the migration cycle (Reppert and others 2010).

The second species that was found after walking further down the trail was the Common Brown Butterfly. According to the climate watch website, the reason they are interested in this species of butterfly is because compared to 60 years ago these butterflies are coming out about 10 days earlier than it was suppose to and also may be appearing in new areas. In the article Global Warming Changes Natural Event, it is recorded that for the first time in history climate change has made a major impact on the development of the common brown butterfly. Michael Kearney and Natalie Briscoe of the University of Melbourne, Australia, contrasted temperature records in the city and records of the common brown butterfly to be seen every spring subsequent to the early 1940s. Upon every decade, the butterfly rose 1.6 days before and Melbourne warmed by 0.14 degree celsius in an average.

The monarch butterfly is one of the most familiar species, and is considered important because of its pollinating skills. This species is most recognizable for is black, orange, and white wings. The monarch butterflies wings change colors from orange to a deep red, from beginning to the end of migration. This butterfly population has been decreasing over the last ten years, and are predicted to be quasi-extinct over the next 20 years. These butterflies keep warm by opening their wings up to the sun. Males have a different appearance than the female butterflies such as they are much bigger in size, and the black veins on their wings are narrower than those of a female. The monarch butterfly has six legs, but only uses four. They use their middle

Monarchs have been in danger for the longest time because of all the global warming we cause. One of the many effects of global warming is climate change. The change in the climate can affect the Monarch Butterflies’ migration and the life cycle,so we have to limit the amount of littering and pollution.