Monarch Butterfly On Zinnia

Title

Monarch Butterfly On Zinnia

Artist

Marlin and Laura Hum

Medium

Photograph - Photography

Description

This monarch butterfly was photographed on a hiking trail in the Morgan Arboretum in Sainte-Anne-de Bellevue, Quebec, Canada. We were encouraged to see several monarchs, seeing as their numbers have been drastically reduced in recent years. Painted lady butterflies were also numerous this year.
"Monarch butterflies are known for the incredible mass migration that brings millions of them to California and Mexico each winter.
North American monarchs are the only butterflies that make such a massive journey—up to 3,000 miles. The insects must begin this journey each fall ahead of cold weather, which will kill them if they tarry too long.
Monarch butterflies begin life as eggs and hatch as larvae that eat their eggshells and, subsequently, the milkweed plants on which they were placed. (Monarchs are dependent on milkweed plants, which larvae eat nearly exclusively.)
Fattening larvae become juicy, colorful caterpillars, then create a hard protective case around themselves as they enter the pupa stage. They emerge as beautifully colored, black-orange-and-white adults. The colorful pattern makes monarchs easy to identify—and that's the idea. The distinctive pattern warns predators that the insects are foul tasting and poisonous.
Butterflies that emerge from chrysalides (pupa state) in late summer and early fall are different from those that do so during the longer days and warmer weather of summer. The monarchs that emerge later are born to fly, and know because of the changing weather that they must prepare for their lengthy journey.
Only monarchs born in late summer or early fall make the migration, and they make only one round trip. By the time next year's winter migration begins, several summer generations will have lived and died and it will be last year's migrators' great grandchildren that make the trip. Yet somehow these new generations know the way, and follow the same routes their ancestors took—sometimes even returning to the same tree.
Many scientists are concerned about the eastern population of monarchs, which summer east of the Rocky Mountains. This group is occurring in ever smaller numbers, and its survival may be threatened by a series of natural disasters in the Mexican wintering grounds, as well as by reduced acreage of milkweed plants in their summer home." (www.nationalgeographic.com)
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September 10th, 2019

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