Here's the answer to a few frequently asked questions:. Once a Monarch emerges from its pupa chrysalis , how long does it live? Monarchs that emerge from their pupae between spring and late August only live about three weeks.
Their primary purpose is to reproduce. A female Monarch can lay more than eggs in the couple of weeks she is alive, but most of those eggs or the caterpillars that hatch will be devoured by predators. More will become infected with disease and perish. Monarchs that emerge from their pupae from late August through early October have immature reproductive organs and are not capable of reproducing. These Monarchs will nectar, store energy in the form of fat, and then head for the mountains of central Mexico, where they will over-winter.
The temperature is generally 40 to 50 degrees in these mountains, so the Monarchs are at rest most of the time as it is too cold for them to fly. By late February, when milkweeds are beginning to grow in Texas, and the fir forests of Mexico are warming up for spring, the Monarchs will mate and the females will fly to Texas, where they will lay eggs and then expire.
It will be their offspring that continue the journey northward. How can I distinguish between a male and a female Monarch? It's actually quite easy to distinguish between the two sexes in a Monarch. The male has two black-colored oval markings on his hind wing which the female does not have the photo to the left points to the ovals.
These are actually scent patches and the scent patches release pheromones which will aid female Monarchs in locating him. Remember, the adults only live about 3 weeks and must produce offspring so the survival of the species won't be threatened. If you look at the abdomens of Monarchs, you'll see a difference too. The male has claspers at the tip of his abdomen so he can hold on to the female during mating. The female has an opening like a slit where the male will attach and insert sperm.
Is it OK to hold a Monarch? The word "chrysalis" is often used interchangeably with the word "cocoon," but the two are not the same. Only butterfly caterpillars form chrysalises, and only moth caterpillars spin cocoons. Unlike a cocoon, which is spun from thread produced by a moth caterpillar, chrysalises exist inside a butterfly caterpillar and emerge once the process of metamorphosis begins.
To form a chrysalis, a butterfly caterpillar does not use silk. Instead, it hangs upside down from a leaf or other sturdy structure and sheds the outer layer of its skin.
Underneath is a perfectly formed chrysalis, which hardens like a tough outer skin. Inside the chrysalis, the caterpillar's body liquefies and rearranges to form a butterfly. Some butterflies emerge from their chrysalises differently than others.
One of the most famous butterflies in the world thanks to their flashy orange wings and migratory habits, the beautiful monarch emerges from an equally beautiful chrysalis.
A monarch chrysalis is light green with a series of shimmering, golden dots on the outside. From a distance, this chrysalis could be confused with a shiny, under-ripe fruit, but the monarch chrysalis doesn't stay green for long. After around 10 to 14 days, its green color fades, and the chrysalis becomes transparent.
This allows an observer to see the fully formed butterfly within. When the seam along the top of the chrysalis splits, the monarch emerges. As children, many of us learn about the wondrous process by which a caterpillar morphs into a butterfly. The story usually begins with a very hungry caterpillar hatching from an egg. The caterpillar, or what is more scientifically termed a larva, stuffs itself with leaves, growing plumper and longer through a series of molts in which it sheds its skin.
One day, the caterpillar stops eating, hangs upside down from a twig or leaf and spins itself a silky cocoon or molts into a shiny chrysalis. Within its protective casing, the caterpillar radically transforms its body, eventually emerging as a butterfly or moth. But what does that radical transformation entail? How does a caterpillar rearrange itself into a butterfly? What happens inside a chrysalis or cocoon?
First, the caterpillar digests itself, releasing enzymes to dissolve all of its tissues. Butterflies have four distinct stages in their life cycle. They start as an egg, hatch into a caterpillar, turn into pupae during metamorphosis, and finally emerge as a butterfly.
It's common to call the shell where a butterfly completes its metamorphosis a cocoon, but that's technically incorrect.
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