JUST SPOTTED A MONARCH PUPA

Yeah, got to show a monarch pupa to someone who had never seen one. Now, I just have to wait until Summer comes. Wonder why nothing eats these things? They must have some special defense that science either has or has not determined. Or maybe they are regularly eaten and I am simply incorrectly assuming that they are not.

I love those little gold dots? How does the Monarch to that?

Will this pupa mysteriously disappear? Should I put a web cam on it?

Monarchs May Benefit From Energy Crisis

With the United States trying to chase people out of the country and the high price of fuel there is a lot is lot more vegetation in Kansas and the United States than there was last year. We can no longer afford to cut every bit of vegetation, as if it is always a necessary thing to do. Maybe we will find a way, if we pray hard enough, to stop chopping vegetation and uprooting dandelions with a fanaticism that simply makes no sense.

As for the Monarchs they should find more sustaining vegetation for laying eggs and having meals.

In this sense both monarchs and humanity are benefiting from the energy crisis.

The Role of Milkweed in the Monarch Life Cycle

The following link displays the subsequent monarch facts. Danaus plexippus, the monarch butterfly, apparently dines on milkweed in its larval or caterpillar form. This means that butterflies do lay eggs on milkweed plants. Note the concern expressed in the article about the destruction of milkweed and the impact it might have on monarch populations.

http://www.ivyhall.district96.k12.il.us/4TH/KKHP/1insects/monarchfax.html

Monarch Butterfly Fact Page
Description
The monarch butterfly (Danaus plexippus), a brightly patterned black and orange butterfly, is one of the most fascinating insects in the world. This familiar butterfly has a life cycle involving four distinct stages: egg, larva, pupa and adult butterfly. This is known as complete metamorphosis. Eggs are oval shaped and translucent green in color. Larva are horizontally striped with black, white and yellow. Pupae are a brilliant green colour, with a gold band near their silk point of attachment to a leaf or branch. The adult monarch is orange with black stripes radiating from the point of attachment of the wings to the thorax. The black edges of the wings are dotted with white spots. Males are distinguishable from females by the presence of black coloured scent glands on each of their hind wings. Monarchs breed in the northern United States and southern Canada. Western populations of adults, which emerge late in the season, migrate to California, and eastern populations migrate to the Sierra Madre mountains in Mexico to overwinter, or spend the winter.

Monarch butterflies are totally dependent on milkweed during their larval stage. After eating the egg from which they hatch, the tiny caterpillar begins eating milkweed leaves. The larva are eating machines and grow rapidly. In the two weeks following hatching, the caterpillar sheds its skin four times as it grows too large for its skin.

After only two weeks it is about two inches, or five cm long, and 3,000 times its birth weight! The caterpillar is ready for its change into the chrysalis, or pupal stage. The caterpillar spins a silk button in a sheltered spot such as the underside of a leaf. Attaching itself firmly to the silk, it hangs head down in a characteristic J-shape, and begins transformation into the pupa. The pupa does not eat. Inside the casing, the adult butterfly develops from the reserves built up by the caterpillar. The monarch emerges from the pupa in approximately five days. After pumping fluid into its wings, and waiting for them to harden, it is ready to fly. The adult butterfly has no mandibles (grasping mouth parts), feeding instead with its long tongue, called a proboscis. Adults feed on nectar, sap, juices and dew, and prior to migration build up large reserves of fat.

Monarchs have evolved a special means by which to avoid being eaten by predators. The sap of the milkweed that they eat as a caterpillar contains a chemical which tastes terrible to most birds. Birds attempting to eat a monarch butterfly soon spit it out. A monarch's bright colors are a signal to predators of its bad taste. In addition, viceroy butterflies, which are unrelated to monarchs but look almost exactly like them, are not bad tasting to birds, but may have evolved to look like monarchs and thereby avoid being eaten.

Monarch Migration

The mystery of monarch migration was solved by the use of lightweight wing tags, which directed people who found tagged monarchs to send them to Dr. Fred Urquhart at the University of Toronto. Records of tagged butterflies were then tracked and their migratory route determined. After several years of searching, the first winter location of monarch butterflies was discovered in 1975 in the Sierra Madre mountains west of Mexico City. Monarchs are believed to guide themselves during migration using the position of the sun and the magnetic field of the earth.

Life Cycle

During the summer, female monarchs look for milkweed plants in meadows, along roadsides, and abandoned farmers' fields of the northern United States and southern Canada. Females lay their eggs only on milkweed plants, and each female lays about 400 clear green oval eggs. The monarch egg is no bigger than the head of a pin, and is attached to the underside of a milkweed leaf. Within a few days, the egg hatches and a yellow, black and white striped caterpillar emerges, beginning its life cycle. Like many insects, the monarch parents provide no care for their offspring.

Monarchs which breed early in the summer live only a few weeks. Adults die shortly after mating and laying eggs. Several generations of short lived monarchs are produced in early to mid summer. However, in late August, shorter days and colder temperatures cause the emerging monarchs to postpone reproductive maturity. This last generation of the summer will live for eight or nine months and travel over a thousand miles to Mexico, a place they have never been before. Before migrating, monarchs gather in huge numbers at departure points such as Presqu'ile Provincial Park, on a peninsula sticking out into Lake Ontario.

In the spring, the eight or nine month old monarchs reach sexual maturity, and begin migrating in a north-eastern direction to the southern U.S. They mate all along the migratory route. Unlike their marathon journey south the previous fall, they do not complete the trip, passing this responsibility on to their offspring.

Threats to Monarchs
The largest threat to the monarch butterfly is human activities within their wintering grounds. While widespread on their summering grounds, the butterflies are highly concentrated and vulnerable to threats in wintering areas. Habitat destruction and changes caused by logging are a constant threat. The Sierra Madre wintering sites of the monarch are close to Mexico City in an area under heavy development pressure. Since 1986, several of the sites occupied by the overwintering monarch butterfly have been protected by the Mexican government, but even though they are supposed to be protected, some forested areas have been logged. Of the five protected areas, one has already been seriously damaged by excessive logging, and the monarchs do not seem to form their colonies there any more.

In California, where many western monarchs overwinter, the effects of tourism and poorly planned management and development are a problem, and at least seven of the 80 known monarch sites have already been destroyed. Milkweed is widespread and abundant in Canada and the United States, and is often considered a weed. Some researchers have expressed concern that the spraying of pesticides for weed control are killing milkweed plants and may be endangering the habitat and food source of the beautiful monarch butterfly.

Information about the monarch butterfly was obtained from the WWFWorld Wide Fund For Nature(formerly known as World Wildlife Fund) - the world's largest independent conservation organization.
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MILKWEED DECLARED A NOXIOUS WEED BY OVERLAND PARK, KANSAS

If you are skeptical about the idea that a city would declare milkweed a weed and a noxious weed at that then please consult the Overland Park Municipal Code 7.20.120I:

"Weeds" shall mean to include, but not be limited to, barnyard grass (echinochloa crusgalli); beggar tick, hemp (cannabis sativa); milkweed (asclepias syriacs); ... ragweed, sunflower, common (helianthus annuus); swamp smartweed, tanweed, devil's shoestring
(polygonum coccineum); tall thistle (cirsium altissimum); ... etc.
(History: Ord. NU-1376 '1, 86)


Does milkweed or asclepias syriacs deserve to be sandwiched between an illegal drug and the bane of all who have allergies, ragweed? I think NOT!

Long live milkweed! Long live the milk of the monarch butterfly!

MONARCH BUTTERFLIES DINE ON MILKWEED

Like Monarch butterflies? I do. I see they are already migrating southward here in Kansas. Adults, ie. butterflies, lay their eggs on milkweed. When larvae hatch out they eat their egg shells and then dine on milkweed for about two weeks. Then larva pupate or move on to stage three in their metamorphosis.

You can help these delightful companions on mother earth by having a little milkweed in your yard, if you have one or have access to one.

Unfortunately the State of Kansas has declared milkweed a noxious weed. Tell that to the monarchs!