A species
Monarch butterfly
Danaus plexippus
Flies thousands of kilometres to a forest its parents never saw.
You and the monarch butterfly last shared an ancestor about 580 million years ago (on 11 November, if life's history were one year).
Imagine flying thousands of kilometres to a mountain forest your parents never saw. Eastern monarchs from southern Canada and the United States travel south to spend winter in fir forests in Mexico. These travellers have never been there before. Their parents had never been there either. Earlier generations flew north in spring, laying eggs along the way. Like the western honey bee beside it on the tree, the monarch is an insect with four wings and six legs. Its front legs are tiny and hard to see. Over several generations, the species migrates south and back north again, as birds do. Few butterflies make such a two-way journey.
An adult is about as wide as a child's palm, bright orange with black veins and a black border dotted white. The bright colours warn predators that the body holds poison. Caterpillars eat only milkweed. They store the plant's poison in their bodies. Many birds and other animals that eat a monarch feel sick and learn to avoid them next time.
A green case with gold spots
To change into an adult, a full-grown caterpillar crawls away from its food plant and forms a green chrysalis dotted with gold. After about 10 to 14 days the case turns clear. The new adult then hangs upside down for hours while its wings dry.
Light sippers that help flowers
Adults weigh less than one gram, about half a gram on average. They sip nectar from many different flowers, uncoiling a long tongue to drink and coiling it back after. While feeding, they help many wildflowers make seeds.
A world traveller with another name
This butterfly also lives in Central and South America, on Pacific islands and in parts of Europe. It also lives in Australia, where it is called the Wanderer, and in New Zealand.