One of the cooler things we have done this year.... Why we never have before... I do not know. All of the life on the farm and here is one of the smaller beautiful creatures' life cycle that we got to experience. We thought we would share it with our readers and maybe their" at home" school kids as well.
A Little Factual Information about Monarchs below:
COMMON NAME: Monarch butterflies
SCIENTIFIC NAME: Danaus plexippus
TYPE: Invertebrates
DIET: Herbivore
GROUP NAME: Flutter
AVERAGE LIFE SPAN: Six to eight months
SIZE: Wingspan, 3.7 to 4.1 inches
WEIGHT: 0.0095 to 0.026 ounces
SIZE RELATIVE TO A TEACUP
The monarch butterfly is one of the most recognizable and well studied butterflies on the planet. Its orange wings are laced with black lines and bordered with white dots. Famous for their seasonal migration, millions of monarchs migrate from the United States and Canada south to California and Mexico for the winter.
Life cycle:
The female monarch butterfly lays each of her eggs individually on the leaf of a milkweed plant, attaching it with a bit of glue she secretes. A female usually lays between 300 and 500 eggs over a two- to five-week period.
After a few days, the eggs hatch into larvae, otherwise known as caterpillars in the moth and butterfly world. The caterpillars’ main job is to grow, so they spend most of their time eating. They only eat milkweed, which is why the female laid her eggs on milkweed leaves in the first place.
We Gathered 3 Caterpillars and placed them in the bug box that Great Grandpa made for Elias.
The caterpillars eat their fill for about two weeks, and then they spin protective cases around themselves to enter the pupa stage, which is also called "chrysalis."
They enclosed themselves so quickly, within hours of being in the "hanging" position.
About a week or two later, they finish their metamorphosis and emerge as fully formed, black-and-orange, adult monarch butterflies.
Monarch butterflies do different things depending on when they complete their metamorphosis.
Ours probably started to migrate after a few weeks because it was later in the summer.
They loved our Milkweed when they were caterpillars and then enjoyed the Butterfly Bushes when they were butterflies.
We have several bushes planted along with many other butterfly and hummingbird attractants throughout the farm.
The disappearance of milkweed is a major reason for their population decline. Milkweed, which is the only place monarchs will lay their eggs and the only food caterpillars will eat, used to grow in and around agricultural crops. The systematic removal of milkweed from fields in recent years, as well as increased use of herbicides and mowing alongside roads and ditches, has significantly reduced the amount of milkweed available.
Climate change is also a concern for a number of reasons. Monarchs are very sensitive to temperature and weather changes, so climate change may affect biological processes, such as knowing when to reproduce and to migrate. It’s also creating more extreme weather events, which negatively affects their overwintering habitats, the availability of milkweed in their breeding habitats, and their survival directly—too hot or too cold, and monarchs will die.
If they emerge in the spring or early summer, they’ll start reproducing within days. But if they’re born in the later summer or fall, they know winter is coming—time to head south for warmer weather.
Check out our video below of the whole process, including letting them go and fly into the air.
Will you try to hatch your own Monarchs next year? Wilson Wonders
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Some information above was cited from National Georaphic.
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