Monarch butterfly migration

The migration fascinates scientists and other nature-watchers.  How can a seemingly delicate butterfly make a 2,500-mile journey across the United States, the Gulf of Mexico and into central Mexico?  And how does it, and its thousands of companions, know where to go and how to get there?

Egg & caterpillar
First, let's look at the monarch's life cycle.  A monarch butterfly begins life as an egg, a tiny dot laid on the underside of a leaf. During its second stage of life, the larval stage or caterpillar, it feeds on its favorite food plant, milkweed, and grows quickly.

Chrysalis
Its pupa stage, or chrysalis, is the stage where it transforms (metamorphoses) into an adult, the recognizable orange-and-black butterfly we know as the monarch.  What happens next depends on what time of year the adult emerges.

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Adult Monarch butterflies - World's longest living butterfly
Adult monarchs that emerge in spring or early summer enjoy a fairly typical butterfly lifespan of 2-5 weeks, during which they feed, mate, lay eggs and die.  However, monarchs that emerge in the late summer have more on their agenda - migration!  These special monarchs may live 7-8 months, making them the longest-lived butterflies.

Vast roosts in Mexico
Once they reach Mexico in November, the monarchs roost by the hundreds of thousands on oyamel fir trees.  There, they hibernate until March before starting a northward migration.  Then, they mate, lay eggs and die.  Their offspring continue the journey north through the spring and summer.  It takes four generations of monarchs to reach the northern United States and southern Canada. It is the offspring of this last group who are destined to repeat the southward migration of their great-great-grandparents. Monarchs are the only insects that have such an incredible migration.

October - November in Florida
Autumn is the best time to see butterflies in North Florida, and mid-October to mid-November is the peak time to see them.  You can see monarchs feeding in clusters on goldenrod, saltbush and other wildflowers, especially along the coast.

For more information about monarch butterflies and their migration, visit www.monarchwatch.org

Illustration from Nomads of the Wind and Other Wonders of the Butterfly World - Photographic Story of the Monarch Butterfly Migration