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Facts About Monarch Butterflies - IAS Academy In Coimbatore
Facts About Monarch Butterflies - IAS Academy In Coimbatore
Slow Motion Clapping Wings:
The average butterfly flaps its wings about 20 times per second. On the other hand, monarchs flap their wings about 5 to 12 times per second. Equivalent to 4828 kilometers! This annual migration begins in the northeastern United States and Canada and ends in southwestern Mexico. Migration occurs in four generations of butterflies. During the larval stage, monarchs eat poisonous milkweed, which is stored in the body. The poison cardiac glycosides causes predators to vomit, although it rarely causes death.
The voracious monarch caterpillar has been known to eat an entire milkweed leaf in five minutes. They ate 200 times their body weight in milkweed! They originated in North America and were introduced to Australia in the 1870s. Interestingly, the word "chrysalis" actually comes from the Greek word for gold "chrysos". In fact, this caterpillar is quite resourceful! When it first comes out of the egg, it eats the shell.
Emperor caterpillars can grow up to 2,700 times their original body weight. That's impressive considering it's only in the caterpillar stage for 10 to 14 days! The monarch butterfly is the state insect of Texas, Minnesota, Idaho, Illinois and Alabama. It is also the state butterfly of Vermont and West Virginia. This is the Greek word for "sleeping transformation" and refers to the transformation process that takes place in the chrysalis.
Monarch Butterfly Life Cycle:
According to the Monarch Joint Venture (MJV), a nonprofit cooperative that promotes monarch conservation, they can mate multiple times, sometimes for 16 hours at a time, after which the female immediately begins laying eggs on the milkweed plants. Laura Lukens, MJV's national monitoring coordinator, said the regal egg was about the size of a pinhead, football-shaped, and had vertical ridges. Eggs are grey-white to yellow.
Are They Poisonous:
Adult monarchs are poisonous to most potential predators. According to the MJV, this is because during the larval stage, the monarchs feed only on milkweed juice, which contains toxic steroids called cardolactones. Monarchs have evolved to tolerate poisonous sap, at least to a certain extent. Larvae that eat too much plant latex may experience temporary paralysis or seizures.
Where Do They Live And Why Do They Migrate:
D. plexippus lives in North and South America, including well-known populations that migrate between Mexico and Canada. The species can also be found in parts of Australia and other countries in Oceania, as well as in Indonesia, Portugal, Spain and the state of Hawaii. According to a 2014 study in the journal Nature (Opens in a new tab), biologists believe the butterflies that spark these distant populations either board ships from North America or fly on their own.
How Do They Navigate:
Monarchs migrate during the day, and research has shown that monarchs can navigate using a solar compass mechanism, which combines signals from the butterfly's biological clock with the position of the sun. However, monarchs still migrate on cloudy days when the sun is hidden, so it's likely that butterflies also use an internal magnetic compass to navigate. A 2014 study published in the journal Nature found that monarchs use an internal compass to locate themselves, which relies on UV sensors in their antennae. When exposed to UV light, monarchs can point themselves south even when the sun is out of sight.
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