Category: Butterflies

North American Monarch butterflies do not like cold weather, so every fall they head south for the winter. According to Monarch Watch, the Monarch’s migration is driven by seasonal changes. Shorter days and lower temperatures influence the movement of the Monarch.

The butterflies fly at speeds ranging between 12 to 25 miles an hour using updrafts of warm air, called “thermals,” to glide as they migrate on the 2500-3000 mile voyage from the Great Lakes in Canada to the warm Central Mexican oyamel fir forests in the mountains of Michoacán and the State of Mexico.

All along their migratory route, they will join together at night in clusters called roosts to rest. Sometimes they roost overnight, and other times they will roost in the same place for several days, waiting for optimal weather to head back on their southern journey. Scientists believe this roosting behavior provides safety from predators. (Click here to read more about roosting behavior.)

A monarch butterfly weighs less than 1 gram, about what a paper clip weighs, yet they are able to travel 1500-3000 miles to their overwintering grounds. And according to Journey North, they have been known to fly as high as 11,000 feet. Most migrating songbird migrations occur in a range of 2000-4000 feet high.

Not all Monarchs migrate to Mexico. Monarch butterflies that live on the west side of the Rocky Mountains overwinter in eucalyptus and pine trees in various places along the California coast between Sonoma County and San Diego.

Monarchs begin to arrive in their overwintering sites in Mexico during the last week of October and the first week in November. In fact, many of the people in that area believe the butterflies are the souls of their dead ancestors coming to visit. Altars of food and flowers are constructed to celebrate their arrival. (Click here to read more about Day of the Dead.)

Millions of butterflies will stay for the winter months high up in the trees, protected from the cold weather. Tens of thousands of Monarchs can cluster together on one oyamel tree in order to keep warm.

In late February these Monarchs will begin their northern travels back to the United States and Canada. They will mate and lay eggs along the way where they find flowers to nectar on and milkweed for their young. This generation will not make the trip back from their starting point. They leave that journey for their children and grandchildren.

I love fall! Butterflies are abundant this time of year. Monarchs are migrating south. Autumn leaves are starting to show their crimson, orange and golden colors. And, then there are pumpkins!

Here are a few ideas on how you can celebrate this wonderful time of year with butterflies and pumpkins.

Monika Moore, the California Butterfly Lady, always creates fun fall butterfly displays using Monarchs she’s raised.

Heather Ward of Heather Ward Wildlife Art carved this Monarch butterfly. She explained, “When carving a pumpkin, it is important to cut out pieces in the right order. Start with the smallest first. In this case, I had a ton of tiny dots. Those were actually the easiest to put in – I just used a drill bit to poke holes in. Then I worked on the smaller patches on the wings, then the larger ones. I still broke a few lines, but it held together. Last, I carved the antennae and upper part of the background circle, then the lower part of the circle.”

This adorable little girl and her butterfly won the 2014 This Old House Pumpkin Carving Contest.

Need some help carving a butterfly? Download this free stencil with instructions from Better Homes and Gardens.

Don’t like scooping out the pumpkin seeds and getting your hands all mushy? Here’s one more project idea that involves absolutely no “pumpkin guts”. These three butterfly-themed pumpkins were carved using surface carving, a design is created by scraping away the tough outer pumpkin rind and creating texture in the softer flesh beneath.

Don’t feel like you are creative? You can carve a pumpkin using butterfly-shaped cookie cutters and a rubber mallet to make these butterfly designs.

Hollow out each pumpkin as you would for traditional carving. Then, center a cookie cutter on one side and gently tap with the rubber mallet until the cookie cutter goes all the way through the flesh. Start in the center and work side-to-side to avoid bending the metal. Remove the cut pumpkin along with the cutter, and clean up the edges with a sharp paring knife.

You might want to consider purchasing a Professional Pumpkin Carving Tool Kit to help you carve your pumpkins.

Happy Butterfly Halloween!

Halloween is just around the corner. Do you have your costume ready? Here are some butterfly-themed costumes you might like.

What an adorable idea for a couple!

Here is another cute duo.

This family dressed up as the whole lifecycle of the Monarch butterfly.

Don’t you love this adorable little butterfly?

Here is an adorable DIY Monarch butterfly costume.

This video shows how to make Monarch butterfly wings out of garbage bags.

Even dogs can fly!

Sometimes a child-created costume can be the best!

And if you are not creative and just too busy to make a butterfly costume, you can always find one online.

Hoping to see lots of butterflies this Halloween!

If you are growing herbs such as parsley, fennel, carrots, radishes, celery, or dill in your garden then you most likely have encountered what some call “parsley worms”.

Although many may regard these “worms” as a nuisance, they should be treated with care as these “worms” are actually the caterpillars of the Black Swallowtail (Papilio polyxenes) or Anise Swallowtail (Papilio zelicaon) butterflies. These butterflies not only grace your garden with their beauty, but they are also important pollinators.

Sometimes people confuse these caterpillars with Monarch caterpillars. They do resemble each other, but the big difference is Monarch caterpillars only eat milkweed. Black swallowtails eat plants from the Apiaceae or the   Rutaceae family.

If you do not want the caterpillars eating your herbs, gather them up and place them in a container with some of the plant you found them on. This will protect the vegetables and herbs you want to grow for food.  Once they become butterflies you can release them so they can pollinate your garden.

So if you want butterflies in your garden don’t kill the caterpillars!

If you thought the Monarch (Danaus plexippus), was the only royal butterfly of North America you would be wrong. Another royal member, the Queen (Danaus gilippus) is a cousin to the Monarch and adorns many southern gardens with its lovely orange wings.

The Queen is chiefly a tropical species. In the United States, it’s usually confined to the southern regions. It’s quite common in Florida and southern Georgia, as well as in the southern parts of Texas, California, and other states bordering Mexico, including Arizona and New Mexico. Periodically, a stray may be found in the Midwest. Because of climate change, they may even stray farther north as time goes on.

Queens and Monarchs are often mistaken for each other in their various life stages because of their resemblances. But if you look closely, it’s not that hard to tell the difference between Monarchs and Queens.

Like the Monarch, caterpillars of the Queen also feed on different species of milkweeds. The larvae of the Queen butterfly have an extra set of filaments the soft horn-like structures on their topside. The Queen caterpillar, similar to the Monarch, has black, yellow, and white stripes, but the pattern varies.

The chrysalis of the Queen is identical to that of the Monarch but is typically smaller. Also, sometimes has a pink hue.

Like male Monarchs, male Queens have a black spot on each hindwing. These black dots are pheromone scales. The Monarch butterflies do not use pheromones during courtship and mating, but Queen butterflies do use them.

Gregg’s Mistflower produces a natural compound called intermedine, which is a pyrrolizidine alkaloid (PA for short). PA’s occur in many plants and are well known to ranchers, being very poisonous to livestock (and humans) as they serve to protect the plants from grazing. However, it turns out that intermedine isn’t poisonous to queen butterflies, but is essential to their reproduction. When you see queens nectaring on Gregg’s mistflower, over 90% of them are males happily imbibing intermedine with the nectar. Then they convert part of the intermedine to a smaller molecule named danaidone which is a sex attractant pheromone that draws in the females

During mating, the male queen passes the remaining unchanged intermedine to the female as a “nuptial gift” that once again manifests itself as a toxin, this time rendering her eggs unpalatable to predators! Thus, as the butterfly pollinates the flower, the flower provides a molecule that in two ways enables the butterfly to reproduce!” “Gregg Mistflower, the Queen Butterfly, and the Nuptial Gift” by by Ray Conrow, Native Plant Society of Texas. https://npsot.org/posts/gregg-mistflower-the-queen-butterfly-and-the-nuptial-gift/

The Soldier Butterfly (Danaus eresimus) is a striking species found across North, Central, and South America. It closely resembles the Monarch and Queen butterflies but has a dark reddish-brown coloration with subtle black veining and occasional white spots on its forewings. And like both the monarch and queen butterflies, the caterpillars feed on milkweeds.
These butterflies use aposematic coloration to warn predators of their toxicity They all eat milkweed which contains cardiac glycosides that are toxic and help protect them from predators. (Infographic created by nationalbutterflycenter.org)

Plant Gregg’s mistflower in you garden if you want to attract Queen butterflies (and monarchs)!