Monarch Butterfly Scientific Terminology

Rise up, Citizen Scientists! Prove how crazy for monarch butterflies you are by committing to memory some of the scientific terminology relating to the monarch butterfly. Be the nerd that all your friends pick first to be on their team when you play Trivial Pursuit, Monarch Genius version!

• Danaus plexippus - the scientific Latin name for the monarch butterfly
• larva - that's the Trivial Pursuit name for a caterpillar 
• pupa - what the caterpillar transforms into and is between being a caterpillar and a butterfly
• chrysalis - the blue-green jewel-like case that contains the pupa (this is called a cocoon in the case of moths)
• instar - a stage in the life cycle of the monarch caterpillar on its way to becoming a butterfly. A monarch caterpillar goes through 5 instars. The end of each instar is marked by the caterpillar shedding its skin (molting) 
• eclosion - refers to both the hatching of the larva from its egg and the butterfly from its chrysalis
• androconium - the black spot in the center of each hind wing of the male monarch butterfly

That's enough for now. My head hurts!



The two spots on the hind wings near the tip of
the abdomen are known as the androconium
and indicate this is a male
© John Corney

A recently "eclosed" monarch butterfly
(c) John Corney

A monarch butterfly chrysalis
(c) John Corney

Pupating monarch caterpillar and chrysalis
(c) John Corney



The Life Cycle of the Monarch Butterfly - Video

Here's a great video of the complete life cycle of the monarch butterfly produced for the Chicago Nature Museum. If you've never had the chance to see the monarch's incredible transformation (metamorphosis) from egg, through caterpillar, pupa (chrysalis), to butterfly, then this is a great way to place yourself in awe of what is going on out there in the big wide world of Mother Nature.

Watching the video is one thing, but that "big wide world of Mother Nature" that I mentioned could be your own backyard too if you live in an area where monarch butterflies are found? It's quite easy, and then you can have your own nature show playing in your own back yard and quickly learn how easy it is to become crazy for monarchs! It will fascinate you, your kids if you have any, your visitors.

So why not go here for my guidelines on how to attract monarchs to your garden.

Monarch caterpillar and butterfly predators

Monarch caterpillar and butterfly predators

If you do even a small amount of reading about monarchs you will soon come across a statement that says predators leave monarch caterpillars alone because the milk (latex) in the sap of the milkweed plant is toxic and distasteful to predators. Don't you believe it! I have witnessed young caterpillars being carried off by wasps and swallowed whole by praying mantis right before my eyes!

From my experience, Asian paper wasps and praying mantis are both very happy to make a meal of monarch caterpillars. Lady bugs also will possibly eat the eggs.

Last summer (2013) the wasps were so efficient at picking off the young larvae that I resorted to bringing the caterpillars inside and becoming a caterpillar farmer and raising them in an aquarium. Believe me it was lots of work keeping them well fed and the aquarium clean. (By the way, there was of course no water in the aquarium - it just made the perfect lidded enclosure from which they couldn't escape).

Praying mantis also are clever enough to lie in wait right at the flowers on milkweed plants to snatch up the butterflies as they come to feed on the flowers. If you ever see 4 monarch butterfly wings on the ground with no body attached, you can be sure the butterfly was taken by a mantis. Once they grab the butterfly the first thing they do is bite off each of the 4 wings before consuming the body! A story line for a horror movie for sure!

What can you do about wasps and praying mantis? Not a lot really as you can't start spraying them with pesticides as this will also kill the caterpillars and butterflies. When I see big praying mantis lying in wait by the flowers I pick them off the plant and take them to another part of the property that is far away from the milkweed. I guess it makes me feel better, but who knows if it's very effective. If I see wasps building a nest on the house, I remove it immediately, although they obviously do not respect boundaries and will make a "bee line" for your yard from your neighbor's once they find the bountiful booty on your plants.

So other than those small steps you can just decide to accept it all as being how things work out there in the wilds of your backyard, or you can become a caterpillar farmer like I did last year. Your choice, but after one year of raising monarch caterpillars inside I have decided to retire and let nature take its course.

So far this year I have had around 100 caterpillars reach maturity and progress through to butterflies. So it's been way better than last year, but last year I didn't get my first eggs till about this time and the wasps are only just getting established again, and the praying mantises that I have seen are tiny at this stage. So predation season is not quite here yet. But think of it this way, without some predation, you will never have enough milkweed to support all the eggs that will be laid anyway.

Here's a video of life in my garden on a recent day, including an Asian paper wasp patrolling a milkweed plant.

How to attract monarch butterflies to your garden

Monarch nectaring on Calliandra Californica
(Red Fairy Duster)

Here are some guidelines on how to establish a successful "monarch butterfly garden". All gained from my own experience here in Southern California.

1. Become pesticide free
   Spraying pesticides for insects in your garden will harm or kill monarch butterflies in all their stages: butterflies, eggs, insects, and chrysalises. Not only that, pollinators of all kinds are harmed by pesticides, including bees and other butterflies. We all need to change our attitudes about having completely pest-free gardens. And I found that once I stopped using pesticides several years ago, I slowly but surely ended up with more birds, ladybugs, and mantises in my garden which naturally contained the number of “pests” in my garden. Song sparrows and vireos do morning rounds of many of the plants in my garden looking for “pests” such as other caterpillars! Consider them Mother Nature’s bug-killers.
2. Grow milkweed
   Monarchs will lay their eggs on milkweed of all varieties, but on nothing else. And monarch caterpillars will eat nothing else. There are well over 100 varieties of milkweed native to the United States alone, and many more from around the world. (Go to http://plants.usda.gov
    and search on the scientific name for milkweed which is “asclepias” to see). Try and grow milkweed that is native to your state and locale. You may have to do so by finding a source for seed as I know from experience in Southern California that native varieties of milkweed plants are not typically sold at local nurseries. The hot favorite is “Neotropical milkweed” (Asclepias curassavica) which is native to Mexico and Central America.
3. Plant nectar plants
   Monarch butterflies will feed off the nectar of milkweed plants, but they also feed from many other nectar plants. Nectar plants attractive to monarch butterflies will attract them to your yard even if you don't have milkweed plants. Yes, even butterflies have to eat! You should plant a variety of nectar plants to attract them. Two plants that I have found particularly attractive to monarch butterflies (as well as to bees and hummingbirds) are “Mexican sunflower” (Tithonia rotundifolia) and “tall verbena” (Verbena bonariensis).
4. Sunshine
   Most milkweed and nectar plants do best with a minimum of 6 hours per day of direct sun, and not only that, monarch butterflies thrive on sunshine.  So don't plan on establishing your butterfly garden on the north side of your house or a wall. I actually had to cut back and remove some trees in my garden to get enough shade into my yard.
5. Sit back and enjoy

Welcome

Monarch butterfly on
Mexican sunflower

Welcome to the Crazy Monarch Guy blog.

I'm glad to know there are some other "monarch butterfly" crazies out there! People who obsess about milkweed plants, caterpillars (yes, caterpillars!), gorgeous sparkling jade gems called "chrysalises", and of course, the stunningly beautiful monarch butterfly.

Here I plan to share with you all I have learned about gardening in a way that will attract monarch butterflies to your yard, and how to provide an environment that will help these incredible insects grow from pinhead-sized eggs to gorgeous works of art that fill the sky and lift your spirits.

Help make the world a more uplifting place to live by joining me in becoming crazy about monarch butterflies.