Transcript Monarch Butterflies

Monarch Butterflies
Danaus plexippus
PowerPoint Pizzazz
by the ‘Butterfly Lady’ Jacqui Knight
of Russell, Bay of Islands, NZ
Life Cycle of a Monarch Butterfly
1 – Egg/Ovum
4 days
(longer if cool)
1- Egg
Ovum
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2
3
2
3
Egg (Ovum)
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•
smaller than a pin
male dies soon after mating
one female laid 1179 eggs!*
average female lays 400 eggs!
Photo and statistics:*
Monarch Lab,
University of Minnesota,
used with permission
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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
Life Cycle : Caterpillar
1 – Egg/Ovum
4 days
5
2 – Caterpillar/Larva
10-14 days
1 - Egg
Ovum
4
2 - Caterpillar
Larva
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Caterpillars (Larvae)
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emerges only 2mm long
eats egg shell
grows in stages (five instars)
eats day and night for 9-14 days (Summer)
slower in Winter
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five pairs
of legs
egg to
chrysalis,
caterpillar
grows in size
3000+ times
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9
finally 5-6cm
long
Not palatable
generally to
birds - chemical
defence against
predators
Life Cycle : Chrysalis
1 – Egg/Ovum
4 days
10
2 – Caterpillar/Larva
10-14 days
1 - Eggs
Ovum
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2 - Caterpillar
Larva
3 – Chrysalis
Pupa
3 - Chrysalis/Pupa
10-14 days
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
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skin splits,
revealing
chrysalis
inside
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wriggling
chrysalis
pushes
old skin
up and
out of
the way
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15
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chrysalis
wriggles
and
moulds
into
smooth
shape
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The green
colouration
is
caterpillar’s
blood or
haemolymph
.
The make-up of the
specks of gold
unknown.
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pale green
changes to
jade green
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cuticle (skin) actually transparent
hangs 10-14 days as butterfly body forms inside
Fourth Stage : Adult
1 – Eggs/Ovum
4 days
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2 – Caterpillar/Larva
10-14 days
1 - Eggs
Ovum
4 - Adult
Imago
2 - Caterpillar
Larva
3 - Pupa
Chrysalis
4 – Adult/Imago
mates
3 - Chrysalis/Pupa
10-14 days
Chrysalis shell
breaks open
Monarch
butterfly
emerges
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Adult pumps
fluid into
wings to
straighten
and
strengthen
Then knits
together two
parts of
mouth
(proboscis)
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finds a mate…
… and life cycle
begins all over
again
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Adult
• Females have
broader veins
Photograph courtesy of Dale McClung,
http://www.adver-net.com/FMonHome.html
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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
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Food Sources - Butterfly
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Echium fastuosum ‘Pride of Madeira’
Schinus molle (Pepper Tree)
Tweedia
Buddleia
Bottlebrush, Poinsettia, Hibiscus
Cosmos, Lantana, Asters, Sage,
Yarrow, Phlox, Zinnias
– any flowering plants, nectar-rich
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Butterfly feeder
• sugar water
OR
• apple juice
• pour a little onto a sponge or paper towel
• leave on brightly coloured plate
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Butterfly feeder
• 1 teaspoon sugar dissolved in 2 cups water
• DO NOT USE HONEY
(can spread disease from bees to other
insects)
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Food Sources - Caterpillars
• Milkweed (Gomphocarpus sp.)
was called Asclepias sp.
• poisonous cardenolides or cardiac
glycosides
• cardenolides are poisonous to
vertebrates (animals with backbone)
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Food Sources - Caterpillars
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Swan Plant Gomphocarpus fruticosus
– 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
Food Sources - Caterpillars
Giant Swan Plant
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
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WARNING!!!
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milky latex-like sap
poisonous
can cause itching
if eaten - vomiting, stupor, weakness,
spasms
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ALTERNATIVE FOOD SOURCES
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Only suitable for caterpillars 2cm +
Pumpkin, cucumber rind, courgettes
Put thin slivers on to a plate
Use the ‘moat’ process to force the
caterpillars to eat
• Frass (poop) will change colour!
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Pests
• Birds –
generally do not predate Monarchs –
caterpillars are poisonous to them – some birds
are exception and build up tolerance to poison
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Pests
• Wasps:
– Tachinid larva burrows into a Monarch larva
(caterpillar), eats tissues and fluid from
Monarch
– Brachonid wasp, female
lays one egg inside Monarch
larva. From that egg, as
many as 32 geneticallyidentical adults develop
Photograph: Morris, Clearwater, Florida, USA
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Pests
• Do not try and kill pests -• Some wasps are beneficial, introduced to
control other pests such as aphids
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Protection from Wasps
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
Vase full of water on a tray
Spread a thin layer of water on the tray to act as a moat
Put a branch of Swan Plant in the vase
Remove small caterpillars very gently from their host
plant using a ‘pocket’
Add caterpillars by pegging pocket to Swan Plant
Add more food daily to the vase
Under the tray you will want to put layers of newspaper
to catch all the frass or poop
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Protection from Wasps
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New Zealand
• NZ has only 23
species of butterfly
– 11 endemic
– 12 non-endemic
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New Zealand
• first recorded in NZ 1800s
• believed to have blown here on a storm
• no harmful effects on NZ ecosystem
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New Zealand
• 1960-1970s Monarch
Butterflies tagged
• 6500 butterflies tagged
• 1011 recovered
• Only 28 butterflies
flew more than 20km
Photo
Photo
by Ed
courtesy
Wesley,
NE
Linda
Pennsylvania
& Jeff Ives
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New Zealand
• no pattern of
migration
• parks and gardens –
thousands of
butterflies in one
tree
• following taken
near Russell, Bay of
Islands
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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!
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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.
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North America
80% of the Eastern Population of
migrating Monarchs enters Mexico by
crossing the Rio Grande in Southwest
Texas.
For six weeks each Fall (Autumn)
many thousands of monarchs cluster
and nectar nightly on the scrubby, dry
vegetation. Thousands of square
miles of scrub brush provide shelter
and sustenance for the many millions
of Monarchs.
This pair of tagged Monarchs will
nectar on the Lantana, warming
themselves in the direct sunlight
before resuming their southward trek.
Photo courtesy
Rio Bravo Nature Center Foundation, Inc.
Eagle Pass, Texas
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For further information (USA)
http://www.monarchwatch.org
http://www.monarch.org.nz
http://www.basrelief.org/
http://www.lifestrands.org/
Thanks to Morris (Clearwater, Florida, USA)
and Nadine Bovis (Titirangi) for many of the photographs
Monarch Butterflies
for further information, plants, presentations to schools and clubs etc
contact the ‘Butterfly Lady’, Jacqui Knight, Russell, Bay of Islands, NZ