Summary: The Monarch Butterfly

The monarch butterfly, Danaus plexippus, is famous for many things, from its beautiful annual migration across North America, to its unique and vibrant orange and black warning color scheme that helps to warn predators of their toxicity. Sadly, despite the years of study and public interest, scientists and researchers know little about the genetic basis of these unique traits. However, they have found and researched links between invasive species and the migratory patterns of the monarch butterfly and showed reasons as to why there is such a big decline in the numbers of monarch butterflies migrating. Human beings seem to be the monarch’s biggest predator making us an invasive species to them. Unfortunately, the monarch migration is currently experiencing a horrible decline, and there is now a fear that this beautiful occurrence might stop entirely. Monarch butterflies, mostly hibernate in Mexico and migrate between “1,200 to 2,800 miles from Canada and the United States to establish their colonies in the temperate fir and pine forests along the border between the states of Michoacán and the State of Mexico” (Rendón-Salinas et al. 2004-2013, page #1). However, with
Due to the lack of milkweed plants in North America, in conjunction with the shorter life cycle of the milkweed plants in North America, the monarch butterfly chooses to stay in the more tropical regions where they know tropical milkweed will flourish 24/7. Thus changing their migratory patterns and allowing this species to flourish more in tropical areas and rarely migrate, if they do at all. Despite farmers planting more host plants in North America, North American milkweed plants cannot flourish 24/7 due to the harshness of the fall and winter weather. This harshness of weather and lack of host plants leads the butterflies to migrate back to the tropical regions of Mexico during the fall and winter months and stay there