The Monarch

I'm curious, but usually a dose of information is enough for me to move on to the next thing.  As the saying goes, "a little knowledge can be dangerous."  Case in point, I'm familiar with the quote, but not who said it.

Thanks to Google, I see British author Alexander Pope is credited for it.  However, that's not what he said.  He wrote in 1711, "A little learning is a dangerous thing."

My error isn't all that dangerous, but what I thought I knew about Monarch butterflies was wrong.  After seeing these beauties Sunday morning at the University Display Gardens after church I knew it was time to write about it.

Just getting some photos of the Monarch was exciting.  They don't stay in one place very long and quickly flew away if I got too close.

Thankfully, my zoom lens helped me get closer.

I learned after checking out a post by the National Aquarium Monarchs are even more remarkable than I thought.  They don't travel from up north to Mexico and send the next generation back north.  No, the trip last over four generations!

Leaving Mexico in the spring after emerging from their chyrsalis for the lure of milkweed in the east, west, and midwest portions of the United States it finds a place either at their destination or along the way and lays eggs.

You'll see the next generation a few days later as caterpillers which eat and eat for two weeks until they're ready to attach to a leaf and become a chrysalis themselves.

Ten days later, the next winged beauties appear and fly farther north.  This group, the grandchildren of the butterflies that laid eggs in Mexico, lays eggs which will hatch in July and August.  Like their parents and grandparents they live around six weeks.

The fourth generation, born in September or October, has the longest and most-exciting life.  They live up to eight months and start heading to Mexico quickly after breaking out their wings for the long flight.  Imagine them flying 80 miles in a day.

It's difficult to believe they can get that far as fragile as they appear.

When they get back to their ancesteral vacation home in the tree tops in Mexico they hibernate.

The process starts again in February or March when they wake up to mate and produce that year's first generation.

I wonder if the first, second, and third generations know their lives are going to be so short or the fourth that their long lives are necessary to keep things flying.

Truly, another beauty of creation to treasure as the season starts to transition from summer to fall.