Monarch Butterfly Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2500 words

monarch philander Butterfly - Research Paper ExampleButterflies and moths belong to the order, Lepidoptera (Capinera, 628). The special characteristics of this order argon the presence of a complete, holometabolous life cycle, with disclose egg, larva, pupa, and adult stages (Capinera, 631). And this is why butterflies are classified under this order. A Monarch crush has also a similar wing span which comes to 3.5 to 4 inches (Garber, 76). another(prenominal) common feature of the members of Lepidoptera order is that all of them have four wings and also scales covering at leats some body parts (Capinera, 631). In Monarch butterflies, the scales are seen as a patch near the central veins of the hindwings (Capinera, 631). There are two subspecies in Monarch coquet (Oberhauser and Solensky, 1). The species, Danaus plexippus plexippus, is put in Southern Canada, the USA, Mexico, most Caribbean Islands, Central America and northern South America (Oberhauser and Solensky, 1). The sec ond subspecies, Danaus plexippus erippus is seen in Peru, Bolivia, Chile, Argentina, Uruguay, Paraguay and Eastern Brazil (Oberhauser and Solensky, 1). Monarch butterflies are cold-blooded insects (Learner.org). So they are comfortable in cool climates as in such an atmosphere, they do not need to spend much brawn (Learner.org). It can be seen that the body of the caterpillar will be covered with nine brown rings aside from black head and it features three pairs of authoritative legs with claws attached and five pairs of prolegs that extend backwards (Monarch-Butterfly.com). To differentiate a young-bearing(prenominal) monarch butterfly from a male, one has to look for a simple credit mark -the male monarchs have a black spot on each of the hind wings over a vein. The female monarch butterfly does not have this spot (Monarch-Butterfly.com). In one year, four generations of monarch butterflies complete their life cycle (Monarch-Butterfly.com). The life cycle of a monarch butterfl y on the other hand includes four stages, namely, the egg, the larvae, the pupa and the butterfly (Monarch-Butterfly.com). The annual life cycle of this majestic insect can be considered to begin in the months of February and run into when they mate (Monarch-Butterfly.com). After mating, the butterflies migrate to the Northern and Eastern parts of North America and lay their eggs there in the months of March and April (Monarch-Butterfly.com). It is on the silkweed plant that the Monarch butterflies lay their white eggs (Monarch-Butterfly.com). The eggs will be seen on the undersides of milkweed leaves, usually near the top of the plant. Each female butterfly lay several hundred eggs and the eggs hatch in four days (Monarch-Butterfly.com). There are many invertebrate predators that run for on Monarch eggs and larvae like, red velvet spider mite (Oberhauser and Solensky, 6). The caterpillar is herbivore and feeds only on milkweed leaves for two weeks and then attach to a small stem or a leaf of the plant and starts metamorphosing into the pupa stage (Monarch-Butterfly.com). Because of the insistence of the caterpillars on eating only the milkweeds, Monarch butterflies gained another name, the milkweed butterfly (Monarch-Butterfly.com). The caterpillars are only about 0.1 inches long weighing 0.55 grams (Monarch-Butterfly.com). Caterpillars have alternating bands of yellow, white, and black, on their body with a black stripe between pairs of