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10 Fun Facts About Monarch Butterflies

All over North America, monarch butterflies can be found in habitats that are favourable for feeding, reproducing, and germinating seeds. They are divided into two populations, the eastern and the western populations, which are divided by the Rocky Mountains. Depending on the season, monarchs may or may not be seen in a specific area that is part of their range.

They are among the only insects that migrate, covering long distances between their summer breeding area and their winter habitat, when they spend several months dormant.  They can be found as far north as southern Canada in the summer. The western population moves to coastal California in the autumn, where they spend the entire winter, while the eastern population migrates to the cold, high mountains of central Mexico.

There’s much more to know about monarch butterflies, here are fun facts about them.

1. They only eat milkweed

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In every stage of their lives, monarch butterflies are choosy. They only eat milkweed, whether they are adults or caterpillars. While the adults sip nectar from the flowers, the caterpillars eat leaves. Although most butterflies will eat from different species as adults, even if the caterpillars only eat one, this does make them somewhat special.

Monarch butterflies won’t even lay their eggs on any other kind of plant because of how reliant they are on milkweed. They are therefore incapable of surviving without milkweed. Butterfly populations have disappeared in areas where milkweed was not available.

2. Their behaviour is based on when it emerges from the cocoon

As a monarch leaves its cocoon, it makes a big difference in how it behaves. If it emerges in the spring or summer, it will start looking for a partner right away in order to start breeding.

But, if it appears in the late summer, autumn or winter, it will start to migrate. These butterflies typically have significantly longer lives so they can move and continue to reproduce.

3. The milkweed they eat makes them poisonous

Derek Ramsey / 

The monarch’s stunning, vivid orange colours have a particular function: they deter prospective predators. Both monarch caterpillars and butterflies have unpleasant tastes and are lethal. The milkweed they eat is the cause of that.

As milkweed is poisonous, few animals can consume it. One of the few animals that can safely consume milkweed is the monarch, and after ingesting it, the poison stays in their bodies to repel predators.

4. When things get tough they migrate

If you ever have the opportunity to witness a monarch’s migration in person, it is quite a spectacle. To avoid the freezing temperatures that will kill them, thousands, perhaps even millions of them will take to the skies at once, sometimes flying up to three thousand kilometres. They migrate to Central Mexico from all across North America, gathering on pine tree trunks to wait out the winter months.

5. Monarch butterflies don’t live long enough to complete the migrations

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Butterflies live for a short time, so a 3,000-mile trip takes a long time. The fact that monarchs just don’t survive long enough to finish the migration is something that most people are unaware of.

It may take eight generations of butterflies to complete their entire migration cycle from Canada to Mexico and back (four to get there, and four to get back). As a result, they mostly feed and reproduce while travelling.

6. They only flap their wings 7 times a second

They don’t have flash-like features when it comes to flying, instead, they are slow. The average number of flaps done by butterflies every second is about 20. Yet, monarchs only flap theirs seven times every second, and they usually always do so more than twelve times per second.

This can create a clear sense of flying in slow motion, especially if there are other butterflies nearby to compare it to. One of the more accurate and speedy ways to tell if you are seeing a monarch or something that only resembles one—there are many species that do so—is to look for the wing pattern.

7. Monarch butterflies have little studs of golden pigment dots on the chrysalis 

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A monarch’s chrysalis has a distinctive appearance, just like caterpillars and butterflies do.  A monarch chrysalis is covered in tiny golden pigment studs that look like they are made of gold.

This is a result of certain pigments they eat as caterpillars from milkweed plants. Ironically, they appear in the chrysalis, which is a word that was taken from the Greek word for gold.

8. They use their feet to taste

You might assume that they have taste buds in their long proboscis, which they use to suck up the nectar from flowers, but you’d be mistaken. Monarch butterflies, like all butterflies, use specialised hairs on their feet and legs to taste.

Given that they often rest their feet on flower petals while they feed, they may not even be able to taste the nectar they take. In order to swallow nectar they cannot taste, they taste the petals. Every other plant they touch is also tasted by them.

9. They’ve been chosen as state butterflies in several states

The monarch is a popular choice for the official state insect because of its beauty and significant movements. In fact, it is the state insect of five states: Texas, Minnesota, Idaho, Illinois, and Alabama. In addition, it is also the state butterfly of West Virginia as well as Vermont.

10. They grow incredibly fast

, , via Wikimedia Commons

Monarch caterpillars don’t have much time to develop into adults before they have to breed or migrate since they essentially reproduce on the move. So to compensate they develop at a phenomenal rate.

For a maximum of 14 days, they only spend around 10 days in the caterpillar stage. They gain 2,700 times as much weight in that period!

It is however unfortunate to note that these beautiful animals are now endangered species because of habitat destruction as well as pesticides used in farming. As a way of trying to keep monarch butterflies safe, conservationists have urged people to plant milkweed in their yards so that they can have food to eat, this is one way of attempting to save them and more combined efforts are needed to preserve them.