Monarch%20Butterflies

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Monarch Butterflies
Danaus plexippus

• PowerPoint Pizzazz
• by the Butterfly Lady Jacqui Knightof Russell,
  Bay of Islands, NZ

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Life Cycle of a Monarch Butterfly
1 Egg/Ovum4 days (longer if cool)
1- Egg Ovum
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4
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Egg (Ovum)

• smaller than a pin
• male dies soon after mating
• one female laid 1179 eggs!
• average female lays 400 eggs!

Photo and statistics Monarch Lab, University
of Minnesota, used with permission
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after about four days eggs are transparent (can
be as little as one day or may take all winter)
black face of caterpillar can be seen
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Life Cycle Caterpillar
2 Caterpillar/Larva10-14 days
1 Egg/Ovum4 days
1 - Egg Ovum
2 - Caterpillar Larva
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3
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Caterpillars (Larvae)

• emerges only 2mm long
• eats egg shell
• grows in stages (five instars)
• eats day and night for 9-14 days (Summer)
• slower in Winter

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five pairs of legs
egg to chrysalis, caterpillar grows in size 3000
times
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finally 5-6cm long Not palatable generally to
birds - chemical defence against predators
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Life Cycle Chrysalis
2 Caterpillar/Larva10-14 days
1 Egg/Ovum4 days
1 - Eggs Ovum
2 - Caterpillar Larva
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3 Chrysalis Pupa
3 - Chrysalis/Pupa10-14 days
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Chrysalis

• caterpillar lays down mat of silk
• in centre of mat a tiny white silk button
• clasps button with last two prolegs and lets go
  with front legs
• hangs upside down in a J formation

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• skin splits, revealingchrysalisinside

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wriggling chrysalis pushes old skin up and out
ofthe way
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chrysalis wriggles and moulds into smooth shape
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The green colouration is caterpillars blood or
haemolymph.
The make-up of the specks of gold unknown.
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• pale green changes to jade green

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cuticle (skin) actually transparent hangs 10-14
days as butterfly body forms inside
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Fourth Stage Adult
2 Caterpillar/Larva10-14 days
1 Eggs/Ovum4 days
1 - Eggs Ovum
2 - Caterpillar Larva
4 - Adult Imago
3 - Pupa Chrysalis
4 Adult/Imagomates
3 - Chrysalis/Pupa10-14 days
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Chrysalis shell breaks open Monarchbutterflye
merges
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Adult pumps fluid into wings to straighten and
strengthen Then knits together two parts of
mouth (proboscis)
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finds a mate and life cycle begins all over
again
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Adult
Photograph courtesy of Dale McClung,
http//www.adver-net.com/FMonHome.html

• Females have broader veins

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Adult

• Males have a black dot, a scent pouch, on their
  lower wing
• Their black veins are also thinner

Photograph courtesy of Dale McClung,
http//www.adver-net.com/FMonHome.html
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Food Sources - Butterfly

• Echium fastuosum Pride of Madeira
• Schinus molle (Pepper Tree)
• Tweedia
• Buddleia
• Bottlebrush, Poinsettia, Hibiscus
• Cosmos, Lantana, Asters, Sage, Yarrow, Phlox,
  Zinnias
• any flowering plants, nectar-rich

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Butterfly feeder

• sugar water
• OR
• apple juice
• pour a little onto a sponge or paper towel
• leave on brightly coloured plate

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Butterfly feeder

• 1 teaspoon sugar dissolved in 2 cups water
• DO NOT USE HONEY (can spread disease from bees
  to other insects)

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Food Sources - Caterpillars

• Milkweed (Gomphocarpus sp.)
• was called Asclepias sp.
• poisonous cardenolides or cardiac glycosides
• cardenolides are poisonous to vertebrates
  (animals with backbone)

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Food Sources - Caterpillars

• Swan Plant Gomphocarpus fruticosus
• grows 1-2 metres
• slender leaves
• clusters of small cream flowers
• seedpods resembling swans, silvery green,
• seeds slightly bigger than a pin-head, hard,
  black
• plants often stripped by Monarch caterpillars and
  die in height of season

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Food Sources - Caterpillars

• Giant Swan Plant Gomphocarpus physocarpus
• 2-3 metres
• large round leaf
• larger cream flowers
• round seedpods more like hairy golfballs
• rapid growth, strong plant, usually outlives
  caterpillars attacks
• may need staking - plant out of strong winds

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WARNING!!!

• milky latex-like sap
• poisonous
• can cause itching
• if eaten - vomiting, stupor, weakness, spasms

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ALTERNATIVE FOOD SOURCES

• Only suitable for caterpillars 2cm
• Pumpkin, cucumber rind, courgettes
• Put thin slivers on to a plate
• Use the moat process to force the caterpillars
  to eat
• Frass (poop) will change colour!

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Pests

• Birds
• generally do not predate Monarchs caterpillars
  are poisonous to them some birds are exception
  and build up tolerance to poison

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Pests

• Wasps
• Tachinid larva burrows into a Monarch larva
  (caterpillar), eats tissues and fluid from
  Monarch
• Brachonid wasp, femalelays one egg inside
  Monarchlarva. From that egg, asmany as 32
  genetically-identical adults develop
• Photograph Morris, Clearwater, Florida, USA

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Pests

• Do not try and kill pests --
• Some wasps are beneficial, introduced to control
  other pests such as aphids

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Protection from Wasps

1. Vase full of water on a tray
2. Spread a thin layer of water on the tray to act
   as a moat
3. Put a branch of Swan Plant in the vase
4. Remove small caterpillars very gently from their
   host plant using a pocket
5. Add caterpillars by pegging pocket to Swan Plant
6. Add more food daily to the vase
7. Under the tray you will want to put layers of
   newspaper to catch all the frass or poop

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Protection from Wasps
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New Zealand

• NZ has only 23 species of butterfly
• 11 endemic
• 12 non-endemic

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New Zealand

• first recorded in NZ 1800s
• believed to have blown here on a storm
• no harmful effects on NZ ecosystem

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New Zealand

• 1960-1970s Monarch Butterflies tagged
• 6500 butterflies tagged
• 1011 recovered
• Only 28 butterflies flew more than 20km

Photo by Ed Wesley, NE Pennsylvania
Photo courtesyLinda Jeff Ives
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New Zealand

• no pattern of migration
• parks and gardens thousands of butterflies in
  one tree
• following taken near Russell, Bay of Islands

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North America

• Native
• East of the Rockies Reserves in Mexico
• Autumn migrate up to 3000km south to Mexico for
  the North American Winter
• Thats one and a half times the length of New
  Zealand!
• Spring migrate back to where their great great
  grandparents come from 5th generations!

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North America

• Native to America
• West of the Rockies overwinter in California
  e.g. Monterey Peninsula
• Spring migrate back north some say to where
  their forebears lived.

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North America
80 of the Eastern Population of migrating
Monarchs enters Mexico by crossing the Rio Grande
in Southwest Texas. For six weeks each Fall
(Autumn) many thousands of monarchs cluster and
nectar nightly on the scrubby, dry vegetation.
Thousands of square miles of scrub brush provide
shelter and sustenance for the many millions of
Monarchs. This pair of tagged Monarchs will
nectar on the Lantana, warming themselves in the
direct sunlight before resuming their southward
trek.
Photo courtesy Rio Bravo Nature Center
Foundation, Inc. Eagle Pass, Texas
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For further information (USA)

• http//www.monarchwatch.org
• http//www.monarch.org.nz
• http//www.basrelief.org/
• http//www.lifestrands.org/
• Thanks to Morris (Clearwater, Florida, USA) and
  Nadine Bovis (Titirangi) for many of the
  photographs

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Monarch Butterflies
Thats all folks!

• for further information, plants, presentations to
  schools and clubs etc contact the Butterfly
  Lady, Jacqui Knight, Russell, Bay of Islands, NZ