monarch butterflies
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Monarch Butterflies
PowerPoint Pizzazzby the ‘Butterfly Lady’ Jacqui Knight
of Russell, Bay of Islands, NZ
Danaus plexippus
2Life Cycle of a Monarch Butterfly
1- Egg
Ovum
2 - Caterpillar
Larva
3 - Pupa
Chrysalis
4 - Adult
Imago
1 – Egg/Ovum4 days(longer if cool)
3
• smaller than a pin
• male dies soon after mating
• one female laid 1179 eggs!*
• average female lays 400 eggs!
Egg (Ovum)
Photo and statistics:* Monarch Lab,
University of Minnesota, used with permission
4
after about four days eggs are transparent
(can be as little as one day or may take all winter)
black face of caterpillar can be seen
5Life Cycle : Caterpillar
1- Egg
Ovum
2 - Caterpillar
Larva
3 - Pupa
Chrysalis
4 - Adult
Imago
2 – Caterpillar/Larva10-14 days
1 – Egg/Ovum4 days
6
7
Caterpillars (Larvae)
• emerges only 2mm long
• eats egg shell
• grows in stages (five instars)
• eats day and night for 9-14 days (Summer)
• slower in Winter
8
egg to chrysalis, caterpillar grows in size 3000+ times
five pairs of legs
9
finally 5-6cm long
In NZ not palatable to birds - chemical defence against predators
10Life Cycle : Chrysalis
1- Eggs
Ovum
2 - Caterpillar
Larva
3 - Pupa
Chrysalis
4 - Adult
Imago
2 – Caterpillar/Larva10-14 days
1 – Egg/Ovum4 days
3 - Pupa/Chrysalis10-14 days
11
Chrysalis
• caterpillar lays down mat of silk
• in centre of mat a tiny white silk button
• clasps button with last two prolegs and lets go with front legs
• hangs upside down in a J formation
13skin splits, revealingchrysalisinside
14wriggling chrysalis pushes old skin up and out of the way
15
16
17
18
19chrysalis wriggles and moulds into smooth shape
20
The make-up of the specks of gold unknown.
The green colouration is caterpillar’s blood or haemolymph.
21pale green changes to jade green
22
23
cuticle (skin) actually transparenthangs 10-14 days as butterfly body forms inside
24Fourth Stage : Adult
1- Eggs
Ovum
2 - Caterpillar
Larva
3 - Pupa
Chrysalis
4 - Adult
Imago
2 – Caterpillar/Larva10-14 days
1 – Eggs/Ovum4 days
4 – Adult/Imagomates
3 - Pupa/Chrysalis10-14 days
25Chrysalis shell breaks open
MonarchButterflyemerges
26Adult pumps fluid into wings to straighten and strengthen
Then knits together two parts of mouth (proboscis)
27finds a mate…
… and life cycle begins all over again
28
• Females have broader veins
AdultPhotograph courtesy of Dale McClung,
http://www.adver-net.com/FMonHome.html
29
Adult
• Males have a black dot, a scent pouch, on their lower wing
• Their black veins are also thinner
Photograph courtesy of Dale McClung, http://www.adver-net.com/FMonHome.html
30
Food Sources - Butterfly
– Echium Fastuosum ‘Pride of Madeira’
– Schinus molle (Pepper Tree)
– Tweedia
– Buddleia
– Butterfly Bush
– Cosmos, Lantana, Asters, Sage, Yarrow, Phlox
– any flowering plants, nectar-rich
31
Butterfly feeder
• plastic pot saucer
• sand
• 1 teaspoon of cow or horse manure
• over-ripe piece of banana, apple, pear
• place sand and manure in saucer with small amount of water
• add fruit
32
Butterfly feeder
• 1 teaspoon sugar dissolved in 2 cups water
• DO NOT USE HONEY (can spread disease from bees to other insects)
33
• Milkweed (Asclepias species)
• poisonous cardenolides or cardiac glycosides
• cardenolides are poisonous to vertebrates (animals with backbone)
Food Sources - Caterpillars
34
Food Sources - Caterpillars
Swan Plant Asclepias fruticosa
– grows 1 - 2 metres
– slender leaves
– clusters of small cream flowers
– seedpods resembling swans, silvery green,
– seeds slightly bigger than a pin-head, hard, black
– plants often stripped by Monarch caterpillars and die in height of season
35
Food Sources - Caterpillars
Giant Swan Plant Asclepias physocarpa or Gomphocarpus
physocarpus
– 2 - 3 metres
– large round leaf
– larger cream flowers
– round seedpods more like hairy golfballs
– rapid growth, strong plant, usually outlives caterpillars’ attacks
– may need staking - plant out of strong winds
36
WARNING!!!
• milky latex-like sap
• poisonous
• can cause itching
• if eaten - vomiting, stupor, weakness, spasms
37ALTERNATIVE FOOD SOURCES
• Pumpkin!
• Put thin slivers on to a plate
• Use the ‘moat’ process to force the caterpillars to eat pumpkin
• Frass (poop) will turn golden!
• Only suitable for caterpillars bigger than 2cm
38
Pests
• Birds – do not predate Monarchs - caterpillars are poisonous
39
Pests
• Wasps:– Tachinid larva burrows into a Monarch larva
(caterpillar), eats tissues and fluid from Monarch– Brachonid wasp, female
lays one egg inside Monarchlarva. From that egg, asmany as 32 genetically-identical adults develop
Photograph: Morris, Clearwater, Florida, USA
40
Pests
• Do not try and kill pests --
• Some wasps are beneficial, introduced to control other pests such as aphids
41
Protection from Wasps
1. Vase full of water on a tray
2. Spread a thin layer of water on the tray to act as a moat
3. Put a branch of Swan Plant in the vase
4. Remove small caterpillars very gently from their host plant using a ‘pocket’
5. Add caterpillars by pegging pouch to Swan Plant
6. Add more food daily to the vase
7. Under the tray you will want to put layers of newspaper to catch all the frass or poop
42
New Zealand
• NZ has only 23 species of butterfly – 11 endemic – 12 non-endemic
43
New Zealand
The Monarch Butterfly
• first recorded in NZ 1880s
• believed to have blown here on a storm
• no harmful effects on NZ ecosystem
44
New Zealand
• 1960-1970s Monarch Butterflies tagged
• 6500 butterflies tagged
• 1011 recovered
• Only 28 butterflies flew more than 20km
Photo by Ed Wesley, NE Pennsylvania
Photo courtesyLinda & Jeff Ives
45
New Zealand• no pattern of
migration
• parks and gardens – thousands of butterflies in one tree
• following taken at Butterfly Bay near Russell, Bay of Islands
46
47
North America
• Native– East of the Rockies: Reserves in Mexico– Autumn: migrate up to 3000km south to
Mexico for the North American Winter• That’s one and a half times the length of New Zealand!
– Spring: migrate back to where their great great grandparents come from – 5th generations!
48
North America
• Native to America– West of the Rockies:
overwinter in California – e.g. Monterey Peninsula
– Spring: migrate back north – some say to where their forebears lived.
49
North America80% of the Eastern Population of
migrating Monarchs enters Mexico by crossing the Rio Grande in
Southwest Texas.
For six weeks each fall many thousands of monarchs cluster and nectar nightly on the scrubby, arid vegetation. Thousands of square
miles of scrub brush provide ample shelter and sustenance for the many
millions of Monarchs.
This pair of tagged Monarchs will nectar on the Lantana horrida,
warming themselves in the direct sunlight before resuming their
southward trek.
Photo courtesy
Rio Bravo Nature Center Foundation, Inc.
Eagle Pass, Texas
Monarch Butterflies
for further information, plants, presentations to schools and clubs etc contact the ‘Butterfly Lady’, Jacqui Knight, Russell, Bay of
Islands, NZThat’s all
folks!
51For further information (USA)
http://www.monarchwatch.org
http://www.basrelief.org/
http://www.lifestrands.org/
Thanks to Morris (Clearwater, Florida, USA) and Nadine Bovis (Titirangi) for many of the photographs
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