Advertisement
🦋 Butterfly Species Guide
Danaus plexippus
The Monarch is one of North America’s most recognizable butterflies — bright orange wings laced with black veins, bordered in black with white spots. The pattern is distinctive enough that misidentification is rare, though the Viceroy is a common lookalike.
The Monarch migration is one of the natural world’s most extraordinary phenomena. The eastern population travels up to 3,000 miles between North America and their overwintering grounds in the oyamel fir forests of Michoacán, Mexico. No individual butterfly makes the full round trip — it takes 3 to 4 generations to complete the journey north, and a single long-lived “Methuselah” generation to return south in fall.
Monarchs are entirely dependent on milkweed for breeding. Females will only lay eggs on milkweed, and caterpillars eat nothing else. The decline of milkweed across the North American landscape — due to agricultural herbicide use and habitat loss — is the primary driver of population decline.
The eastern Monarch population has declined by more than 80% since the 1990s. Planting native milkweed — particularly species native to your region — is the single most effective thing a home gardener can do. Avoid tropical milkweed (Asclepias curassavica) in warm climates; it does not die back in winter and may interfere with migration cues.
I launched Butterflies, Birds & Blooms more than ten years ago, and this is our newly redesigned home. We are in a testing phase, so a few things may still be rough around the edges. If you run into any issues, let us know - and in the meantime, enjoy exploring.
- Andrew, Founder & Editor