Monarch Butterfly
Monarch butterflies migrate from various places in North America during the cold months of the year to California and Mexico. If the monarch butterfly were to stay in the cold environment for the winter, they would not be able to survive.
Monarch butterflies go through a process called metamorphosis. When they are born they come out of an egg as a larva. With enough food the larva turns into a caterpillar. When the caterpillar has eaten enough food it develops into a pupa, which is where the transformation to an adult butterfly takes place. The full cycle to adulthood takes approximately 30 days. |
Adult monarch butterflies have two pairs of orange-red wings that have black veins and white spots along the edges. Each adult butterfly lives for approximately four to five weeks.
The monarch butterfly eats milkweed, which is a poisonous plant. This poison is stored in the body of a monarch butterfly and this is what makes the monarch butterfly poisonous to its predators. The monarch butterfly travels a far distance from the cold environment in the wintertime to regions of Mexico considering the butterfly only lives for four to five weeks. The monarch butterfly is not able to handle the cold temperatures and the lack of moisture that occurs during the wintertime. Climate change threatens to disrupt the monarch butterfly’s yearly migration pattern by affecting the weather conditions both in the butterfly’s wintering ground and summer breeding grounds. |
Think about what affect this has on monarch butterflies. How does climate change affect the monarch butterfly? How about deforestation? How does farming affect monarch butterflies? The overall population?