They live off of the stored fat they gained during their fall migration. They remain perfectly still hour-after-hour and day-after-day. During their five months in Mexico from November to May, monarchs remain mostly inactive. These monarchs need a lot of energy to make their trip! They store fat in their abdomens that helps them make the long trip south and survive the winter. These late summer monarchs travel hundreds and even thousands of miles to their winter grounds in Mexico and California. They will not reproduce until the following spring. These are the butterflies that will migrate south. This happens in just a few hours! In two weeks, a full-grown monarch emerges!Īs fall approaches, non-reproductive monarchs are born.
#MONARK BUTTER FLY SKIN#
At the end of the two weeks, they attach themselves to a twig, shed their outer skin and change into a chrysalis. The larvae feed on the milkweed for about two weeks. The eggs take 3-15 days to hatch into larvae. As the monarchs migrate to their summer territory, the female lays her eggs on milkweed plants. The male courts the female in the air, tackles her and breeds with her on the ground. Each butterfly lives from two to six weeks. In the monarch's summer territory, which includes most of North America, monarchs will mate up to seven times. Monarch butterfly reproduction is a complicated process! It is tied in to the migratory patterns of the monarch. This makes it taste horrible to predators! This is such an effective protection from predators, the the viceroy butterfly has adapted to look like the monarch so predators will leave it alone too! The monarch is not a very pleasant meal for predators.Įating milkweed causes the monarch to store alkaloid. Monarch butterfly larva feed on milkweed.
In winter, it is found on the coast of southern California and at high altitudes in central Mexico. In the spring and summer, the monarch butterfly's habitat is open fields and meadows with milkweed.
The monarch butterfly has also been established in Hawaii and Australia. Monarch that live east of the Roky Mountains may overwinter or live year-round in southern California. Monarchs that live east of the Rocky Mountains usually overwinter in Mexico. It is most common east of the Rocy Mountains and is not found in some areas of the Pacific Northwest and Alaska. South to South America and the Caribbean. The monarch butterfly is found in North America from southern Canada Males and females are similar in appearance, but the the black veins are thicker on the female's wings, and the male has small pouches on its hind wings where it storesĪ type of advertising coloration that warns predators away. Its wings look like stained glass windows! When its wings are open, they are about four inches wide. There is a black border around its wings with white spots on it. The monarch butterfly is reddish-orange with black vein-like markings.
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