I spotted this monarch in late August warming in the sun on a misty morning in a meadow.

Monarch butterflies fly 2500 miles to migrate out of the cold. The milkweed leaves they eat as caterpillars have a chemical that builds up in their bodies and the butterflies are poisonous to predators like frogs, birds, mice and lizards. Increasing development has led to destruction of milkweeds and lack of habitat for monarchs. Conservationists are trying to restore monarch milkweek habitat before it’s too late. The males and females look alike except for dots that the males have over veins on the wing. The dots secrete pheromones to attract girlfriends. Can you tell which sex this one is?

Monarch Butterfly Migration 2006, PenOpticon, youtube

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This entry was posted on Wednesday, August 25th, 2010 at 7:38 am and is filed under Backpackers Journal, Earth Matters. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.