Monarch Butterfly Matting Grounds

The monarch butterfly or simply monarch danaus plexippus is a milkweed butterfly subfamily danainae in the family nymphalidae.

Monarch butterfly matting grounds.

Its orange wings are laced with black lines and bordered with white dots. Watch the chrysalis as the pupa changes from the body parts of a caterpillar into the body parts of a butterfly. Monarch butterfly member of the milkweed butterfly group known for its large size its orange and black wings and its long annual migrations. They catch our gaze with their elegant and graceful flight.

Other common names depending on region include milkweed common tiger wanderer and black veined brown. Unlike other butterflies that can overwinter as larvae pupae or even as adults in some species monarchs cannot survive the cold winters of northern climates. They are able to bring messages to us from the spiritual world. The monarch chrysalis where the caterpillar undergoes metamorphosis into the winged adult butterfly is a beautiful seafoam green with tiny yellow spots along its edge.

Range monarch butterflies are found across north america wherever suitable feeding breeding and overwintering habitat exists. While beautiful the distinctive colors of a monarch s wings warn predators that the monarch is foul tasting and poisonous. Its wings feature an easily recognizable black orange. Monarchs are found primarily in north central and south america but also occur intermittently in other parts of the world.

The annual migration of north america s monarch butterfly is a unique and amazing phenomenon. Several subspecies are recognized. It s good to know that barbara kingsolver s popular novel flight behavior was pure fiction so was joan aiken s butterfly picnic which invented a whole new fictional butterfly species a sort of cross between monarchs a kind of tiger moth found in europe and some sort of giant tropical species found in africa butterfly groves still exist in mexico and california. The monarch butterfly is one of the most recognizable and well studied butterflies on the planet.

The monarch is the only butterfly known to make a two way migration as birds do. Monarch butterfly meaning butterflies are beautiful and mysterious creatures.