Monarch butterflies are known to travel thousands of miles each year!
Like so many others, I have always found the monarch butterfly to be such a beautiful insect. Its lore is made all the more powerful by the amazing continental journey that the species takes each year. The eastern North American monarch population travels thousands of miles each fall and spring!
This photo was taken while I was on my way to a work trip in Chicago. I had been driving for four hours, and I needed to stop to stretch my legs. I pulled off the interstate and found Wolf Lake Memorial Park. Wolf Lake sits just a few hundred yards south of Lake Michigan and includes a wonderful boardwalk trail that allows you to explore the lake.
The monarch in this photograph let me follow it around for a good ten minutes. It was bouncing around on a particularly windy day drinking nectar from all of the flowers. The wind proved to be quite the foe in terms of snapping a clear shot of this beautiful butterfly. During a lull, I was able to take this photo with its wings nearly fully spread.
Like many butterflies, the wings of the monarch butterfly are spotted. These markings are also called eyespots, false eyespots, or false eyes. These are thought to either intimidate predators or lessen an attack. Since the eyespots of the monarch butterfly are found towards the wing tips, it is likely that they help to deflect the attack to less vital parts of the butterfly.
The wings of the monarch butterfly are spotted
Monarch butterfly aka common tiger butterfly
Fun Facts about the Monarch Butterfly
- Monarchs are also called: milkweed, common tiger, wanderer, and black veined brown.
- Their average wingspan is 3.5-4 inches.
- They range from Canada to Mexico depending on the time of the year
- The genus of the monarch butterfly, Danaus, was first recognized in 1780.
- The scientific name of monarch butterflies is Danaus plexippus.
- Growing native plant gardens at home is one way to help support the population of the monarch butterfly.
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