It is difficult to live in places where everything is covered, planted and covered with butterflies. It is estimated that on an average of 400 - 500 “monarchs” constantly rest on the handle of a shovel (about twenty meters) during the migration period, and on an area of one square meter their number reaches a thousand heads (more precisely, heads)

"MONARCHES" TOOK THE WING

At the end of February - beginning of March, it becomes a bit hot in the Mexican state of Michoacan. Even fir forests do not really protect the living creatures hiding in them from the heat. The flowers dry up, life stops, and the monarch butterflies fly home. They fly along the Mexico - Canada route (about 4000 kilometers) in beautiful dense flocks of 400 - 500 thousand individuals. With a wingspan of ten centimeters, the clouds of these winged insects literally block out the sun for several days and create considerable everyday difficulties for the residents of the places through which they fly. During these days, the natives try to leave their homes and go somewhere far away from passing travelers. And to say the least, it’s difficult to live in places where everything is covered, planted and covered with butterflies. It is estimated that on an average of 400 - 500 “monarchs” constantly rest on the handle of a shovel (about twenty meters) during the migration period, and on an area of one square meter their number reaches a thousand heads (more precisely, heads).

They will arrive home at the end of March. Here the “monarchs” will take a break from their long journey, feed off, break up into pairs, fall in love with each other, leave offspring, and somewhere in November-December, when cold winds blow in Canada and other butterflies go into hibernation, they will again set off on their way to Mexican fir forests. Where at this time the beautiful CABEZA DE ANGEL flowers will bloom especially for them.

Valery CHUMAKOV

No creature eats Monarchs. Monarch caterpillars feed on milkweed leaves, which contain glycosides that are toxic to most vertebrates. Accumulating in the body of the caterpillar, they are then stored in the pupa and the body of the adult, which thus becomes terribly poisonous.

"Monarchs" are not limited to only traveling around the American continent. Thanks to their ability to fly long distances, during the 20th century they crossed the Pacific Ocean by air and settled in Australia, New Zealand and Hawaii. Several times single specimens of Danaus plexippus were found in Europe, but they most likely ended up here by accident.

Until recently, scientists were at a loss as to how the monarch butterfly managed to fly more than 4,000 kilometers and never lose its way, because, according to entomologists, insects are deprived of sensory organs that allow them to navigate in the cardinal directions. Just over a year ago, Henrik Mouritsen and Bari Frost from Queen's University in Kingston (Ontario, Canada) discovered that the Sun was helping them with this. The sundial “built-in” in the butterfly’s brain allows it to absolutely accurately choose the direction of its flight.

Photos used in the material: Reuters