Butterflies are the kind of insects that, depending on their species, can surprise human beings with their incredible colors, but do you know the monarch butterfly? These are known to live in North America, although when the migration season arrives they do so in giant swarms, join us to learn more about this fascinating butterfly.
This species of butterfly is known as one of the most beautiful in the world, unlike its other species, it makes great migratory routes at a certain time of the year. These migrations were first seen by Canadian entomologists Fred and Norah Urquhart, and also by naturalists Kenneth C. Brugger and Catalina Trail around the XNUMXth century.
Characteristics of the Monarch Butterfly
These insects have various characteristic elements that make them unique in their species and in the kingdom of butterflies, therefore these are some of the characteristics of the butterflies, The first visualizations that were made of monarch butterflies started from studies by the Swedish naturalist Carlos Linnaeus when he wrote his work Systema Naturae in 1758, in said work Monarch Butterflies were spoken of under the Papilio genus.
After 22 years, in the year 1780, Jan Krzysztof Kluk began to use this butterfly as a study model for the species of the new genus "Danaus", this being the genus to which it belongs today. However, the butterfly was not called "monarch" until his studies were published in 1874, by the then American entomologist and paleontologist Samuel Hubbard Scudder. In this work he himself described this butterfly as large and dominant.
This species of butterflies is part of the type ditrisio lepidoptera which are directly attributed to the Nymphalidae family. The length of this butterfly is around 10 or 11 cm, with a weight close to 0,50 and 075 g, taking into consideration that female butterflies of this type are thinner but their wings have greater circulation of veins, for On the other hand, the male is also much larger and releases pheromones through his wings.
They are capable of living at least 9 months, this is motivated by the fact that being from a migratory generation they have been able to easily adapt to different environments, this is undoubtedly 10 times more hopeful than for other species of butterflies that live much less.
Metamorphosis process in the monarch butterfly
This species of butterflies, like any other, needs to go through 4 transformation phases in order to become a butterfly, these are: egg, caterpillar, chrysalis and butterfly. And it is that once it has come out of the egg, they immediately hatch to become a larva, they feed and in turn fatten until they become caterpillars, followed by this in a chrysalis phase, they are surrounded by a bag that will protect for the next process that would be to become a butterfly.
Each process will have a different duration to carry out the next one, everything will depend mainly on the temperature and the time of year in which they could be found. As we said before, these monarch butterflies are the ones that have the longest lifespan compared to the other species, because they are migratory they are called the "Methuselah generation".
Food
Usually these butterflies are born in rural or open areas where grasslands and different types of flora are found, but the question is What do monarch butterflies eat? Being cotton their first food, once they have hatched from the eggs and become larvae, they feed on the remains of the eggshell and then on those plants that produce cotton.
But monarch butterfly feeding when they are adults they change completely, for this case they eat the nectar of different flowers, a nectar that pProvides all the energy necessary to develop your process of migration, this because the nectars are rich in sugar and other essential elements for them to live.
Similarly, when they begin their migratory processes they make stops at flowers with nectar to recover energy; Once the winter season arrives, they develop a hibernation process which is not complicated at all, since they have eaten what is necessary to store fat, although they must hibernate in places where there is water nearby to go out to drink a little.
Monarch Butterfly Habitat
With all this you may have wondered, where does the monarch butterfly live, this insect is found mainly in the African region, then spreads to North and South America to Western Europe and some areas of Oceania. They can usually be seen more frequently in countries as Canada, the United States, Mexico, eventually in Hawaii, New Guinea, India, the Solomon Islands, New Zealand, Australia and even the Canary Islands. On rare occasions he ventures into Europe. One requirement that they have when inhabiting a place is that there are no cold climates, they love heat, so they require places with tropical climates.
How do monarch butterflies behave?
Do not be fooled by how small these insects are, since these butterflies make a huge migratory journey, considering that they do not fly at such a high altitude, they can fly over some important lakes located in America to find the warm climate that They like it so much when the fall season arrives, something that a large part of the world's wildlife does, to leave their comfort zone to go to places that suit them best.
As if that were not enough, this species of monarch butterflies have seasonal patterns throughout their lives according to the place where they have had their metamorphosis process, for example those that originate in eastern North America migrate at the end of the month August to Mexico and Michoacán. For them, this is a great journey that can last up to 2 months in which the butterflies fly more than 6000 kilometers to finally end up in the wooded area of oyamel, after this and when the spring season arrives, they return to the north. While the butterflies that have developed in the western zone, migrate in the winter season to the coasts of California, located in the United States.
Reproduction
The way in which monarch butterflies reproduce consists of a couple of phases that must be carried out in the spring season, just before starting the migratory process of hibernation, in the first stage, it is called "aerial" in the that the male follows the female and takes her, followed by this begins the "terrestrial" stage that on the ground the male mates with her and fertilizes the female by means of the spermatophore. After this happens, the female goes to the breeding nest and lays her eggs inside the milkweed plants. After the 4 phases of metamorphosis have passed in approximately 1 month, the egg has already become a monarch butterfly.
Are Monarch Butterflies a pest?
Given that monarch butterflies carry out migratory processes in giant swarms, many people have considered them a plague that they must combat, although this migratory process is considered a "threatened phenomenon" by the International Union of Nature and Natural Resources itself. and the IUCN itself, in the same way they have considered these species as a "phenomenon in danger of extinction". It is not at all easy for these butterflies to carry out their migratory processes when the weather is against them, predators such as parakeets and even pesticides that people use, you have to understand them!
Defense method of Monarch Butterflies
These small butterflies have an interesting way of defending themselves against their predators, they have different colors depending on the phase they are in: yellow with black when they are caterpillars, and orange with black when they are in their adult phase, these colors warn their predators that are poisonous, this coloration process to alert their predators is a method that has evolved over the years, since many poisonous species have bright colors and their predators already know that it may be a bad idea to eat them.
They begin to develop this defense method since they are in the larval phase, since they eat a lot of the "Asclepias" plants, which are basically poisonous plants, however, although they can protect them from some predators, they are not completely safe from that they are the dinner of some species immune to this poison such as some birds, thickbills, the tigrillo and some wild animals.