Monarch Return

Learn:

Many people are familiar with the migration that monarch butterflies make between the upper Midwest where we are down to central Mexico for the winter. It’s an epic trip of around 3,000 miles, especially considering they are tiny insects!

But it’s a one-way trip, for the most part. The monarchs who fly south in the fall are not the monarchs that return in the spring. On the return trip north, the monarch leaves Mexico and makes it into Texas where it breeds and lays eggs. That’s where this generation’s life ends - some 4,000 miles after their birth!

The next generation are the monarchs who make it to Wisconsin and points north, and we typically have two generations that live here in the summer. Come September, the monarchs that are born actually look different: they have more streamlined wings that are structurally thicker than their parents. This is to prepare them for the long migration ahead.

Read:

I love this first-person (insect?) narrative of the life cycle of a monarch butterfly, written by Zeena M. Pliska and illustrated by Fiona Halliday. “Hello Little One, A Monarch Butterfly Story” also incorporates themes of friendship, the cycle of life, and transformation in many forms. A beautifully lyrical book to share!

Do:

Now is the time of year to start looking for monarchs flitting around your yard and beginning to lay eggs on the underside of milkweed leaves. Go on a hike and check the leaves for a tiny, white, oval egg. Or if you’re lucky, you may see a tiny (think 1/2 cm) caterpillar crawling on the bottom of the leaf and munching away!