A monarch prepares to carbo-load on nectar before performing its royal tasks.
A newly hatched monarch caterpillar prepares for its first meal.
One of the true delights of the steamy summer season in Maryland is the return of the monarch butterfly. I saw my first female monarch two weeks ago sipping nectar from a swamp-milkweed. Last autumn the grandparents of this beauty survived a dangerous and arduous migration from the eastern United States to their overwintering sites in central Mexico. During the long winter they bested predators and weather in their highland retreats. This spring the vagabonds flew several hundred miles from Mexico to the southern United States before finding suitable milkweed plants to serve as food for their young. The female monarch lays her eggs, usually one per plant, on the undersurface of a leaf.
The fully-grown caterpillar assumes the "J" position just before pupation.
After several days the egg hatches and the tiny monarch caterpillar begins to consume the nutritious leaves.From the milky sap of the milkweed the larva obtains potent defensive chemicals known as cardiac glycosides. These compounds are stored by the caterpillar and passed along to the adult butterfly. Birds are important predators of many kinds of butterflies including monarchs. The cardiac glycosides found in the monarch caterpillars and adult butterflies cause several species of would be predators such as blue jays to vomit vehemently.
In the chrysalis the caterpillar transforms to a butterfly.
The conspicuous orange and black coloration of the monarch serves as a warning to the enlightened bird that attempting to eat this attractive morsel will have nasty side effects including an upset stomach. The caterpillar grows and sheds its skin five times before becoming a pupa. Just before the transformation to the pupal stage the caterpillar attaches itself to a leaf or stem with silk and rests suspended from the plant in the shape of a “J”. The last larval skin splits open to reveal the pupa, also called the chrysalis. In about a week the monarch butterfly emerges from the chrysalis and begins the tasks of finding nectar to eat and a worthy mate to carry on the royal lineage.
References
For more information on the biology of monarchs and how to raise them visit the following web sites.