The amazing, mysterious, beautiful, and graceful Monarch Butterfly.
Don’t worry. This Monarch was already dead when I found it. Just well preserved.
I hate to refer to them as insects because of their amazing ability to fly thousands of miles to spend the winter in their chosen perfect environment in Mexico and then to return North in the Spring. But, they are in the insect Class of the Nymphalidae Family of the Animal Kingdom.
The Monarch butterfly, or simply Monarch, is a milkweed butterfly, milkweed being their main source of nourishment and breeding plant. Other common names depending on region include milkweed, common tiger, wanderer, and black veined brown. It may be the most familiar North American butterfly, and is considered an iconic pollinator species. But, I am not here to Wikipedia you to death about this amazing creature. So, let’s get to the real amazing part of this tigers story.
This amazing creature, if they are of the lucky generation, are born in North America in the early Fall and make an incredible journey from their birth home to a mountain side in Mexico. Some of them flying a couple thousand miles during that journey. I am going to be following the largest segment of the Monarch population that spends their Summers on the Eastern side of the Rocky Mountains. There is another group that lives West of the Rockies and Summers in Southern California in eucalyptus trees.
This is the perfect time of year to be talking about the Monarch because, they are about to make their amazing and mysterious migration for the Winter. I noticed the first few Monarch flying thru Houston over the past two weeks so, I guess, the migration is on. The journey usually begins in October but, depends on the time the cold weather starts settling in. And for some, whose ancestors migrate the furthest away the Spring before, the journey is 2500 miles. That boggles the mind and doesn’t even seem possible. But, that is just a part of this amazing story.
The other truly amazing part of their story is that it is the great-great-grandchildren of the Monarchs, that make the journey to Mexico in the Spring, that also make the journey back to North America in the Fall. So, several generations are born and die during the Summer and, the last generation to come out of the cocoon and transform from a caterpillar to a butterfly are the ones that make the journey having never seen the hundreds of miles of land that they are about to navigate.
You see, the temperate place they go to spend the winter, called the Monarch Butterfly Biosphere Reserve (a World Heritage Site), does not have the milkweed plants that allow them to live and reproduce so, they have to fly back North to get that. There Wintering place on the side of several mountains in Mexico is quit a spectacular site.
I applaud the effort made by organizations to protect and conserve the Monarchs because, it would be ashamed if we as the only species that can do something about this were to let this amazing insect, the only one to have a migration, let alone 2500 miles, go extinct.
Go to https://www.monarchwatch.org to find a rich source of information about Monarchs, their incredible journey, and how you can help preserve this amazing phenomenon. See if there is something that you can get involved with. I plan on interviewing one or two Monarchs as they fly by this migration and ask them a few questions about their amazing community and the history of their ancestors. Look for this interview in the next blogs.