365 Urban Species. #199: Monarch

[urbpan]

Photo by urbpan. Location: Olmsted Park, Boston.

Urban species #199: Monarch Danaus plexippus

Of the dozen or so species of migratory butterflies in North America, the monarch is certainly the most well-known and popular. Seven states claim it as the official State Insect, second only to the introduced European honeybee (12 states). It is an uncommonly beautiful insect, even by mainstream tastes. Its bright orange and black colors reminded the colonists of royalty, though they exist to remind birds that they taste bad. Several species of butterfly have bold colors to warn predators away, and some more palatable butterflies have the same bold colors in imitation of the bad tasting ones. Toxic compounds acquired from their exclusive diet of milkweed, as larvae, give both monarch caterpillars and adults their protective taste. There are many species of milkweeds available to them, including many weedy urban species, and many planted by gardeners who wish to attract butterflies. There exists at least one milkweed, black swallow-wort, that monarchs will lay eggs on, but that the caterpillars are unable to feed on. Fortunately, the adult lays a single egg on each individual plant so there are many chances for the correct plant to be chosen. Currently, the greatest threat to monarchs is the loss of trees in their wintering grounds in California, the American south, and Mexico.


Location: Drumlin Farm.

Comments

[perspicuity.livejournal.com]

ok, i'm both impressed and relieved/pleased that you found one of these... when i was a kid in this area, monarchs were EVERYWHERE, as were the splendied yellow/white/black young, and ... of course, tons of milkweeds.

these years, and at least the last 10, i've seen plenty of milkweed - in fact, have been "eyeballing" it for harvesting for fiber soon, but not a single caterpillar. anywhere. waaah. they're so cute :)

i used to go out of my way to raise tomato larvae and swallow tail too. so nifty. haven't seen much of those either.

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[urbpan.livejournal.com]

I always see adults--not as many monarch as tiger swallowtails--but I never see the caterpillars. The individual pictured above is from Drumlin Farm, and very likely was captive-bred (or at least given active encouragement) as part of a conservation/education program there.