Welcome to another blog post!
Today I am going to talk about Monarch Butterflies.
Did you know that Butterfly wings are actually transparent?
The reason for this, is their scales determine what color the wings are, which helps the Butterfly to hide from predators, such as birds.
Butterflies also journey on a huge migration each year, like Mexico or California , which is almost 2,500 miles away. In fact, Monarch Butterflies are the most common type of Butterfly, east of the Rocky Mountains, but are seen all around the United States.
Monarch’s favorite plant to feast on is the milkweed plant, in fact Monarch Caterpillars like to make their cocoon close to a milkweed plant, so when they hatch they can eat the milkweed.
When a Butterfly hatches the “slime” in the cocoon makes their wings heavy so they can’t fly, so if they are close to milkweed, they can eat and wait for their wings to dry, which can take up to 5 hours.
A few summer’s ago we had a Monarch Butterfly hatch on our deck, in a planet, it’s wings were wet and it kept trying to fly, so each time we gently helped it back to the planet. After the whole afternoon it finally was able to fly.
Keep an eye out for Butterflies where you live! But remember, try to look with your eyes and not touch with your hands. 🦋
Until next time, Addi
Resources used for this post:
Monarch Migration
National Geographic Kids
