The Miraculous, Marvelous Monarch by Catherine Carney-Feldman

The following article by Catherine Carney-Feldman was published in the Ipswich Chronicle on Thursday, July 18th. We've all noticed the absence of butterflies and Monarchs this summer so you may be interested in Catherine's article and planting milkweed in your garden or property to encourage their return.

Although the Monarch butterfly is probably our most well know butterfly, the mysteries of its incredible life have only become known since publication of an historic article in National Geographic Magazine in August, 1976. The author, Dr. Fred Urquhart, entitled his article, ‘Found At Last – The Monarch’s Winter Home’. Up until its publication no one had ever imagined that it was possible for an insect, the weight of a postage stamp, to migrate annually 2,500 miles from as far north as Canada, to central Mexico.

The Monarch’s remarkable life starts as an egg the size of the period at the end of this sentence. That egg must be laid only on the Milkweed plant.  The Monarch and the Milkweed plant have co-evolved over millions of years. As with all members of the butterfly family each member has only one specific host plant that it can lay its eggs on.  In about 3-6 days the egg will hatch into a caterpillar.  The caterpillar’s main purpose in life is to be an eating machine. It is genetically programmed to only eat and digest the leaves from its specific host plant, the milk weed. Over the next 9 – 14 days it will shed its skin about 6 times. Each time it sheds its skin it will emerge larger than the stage before until finally reaching its goal of about two inches. At this size it travels about 40 feet away from the milkweed plant and finds a safe place to attach itself to a twig. There it sheds its skin for the last time. The new skin underneath is green and becomes the cover of the chrysalis.  In the chrysalis the body of the caterpillar will completely dissolve into a pool of liquid DNA and in 9 to 14 days emerge reconstituted into a totally new being, the magnificent Monarch Butterfly!

And yet, this is not the end but only the beginning of an incredible story. Each generation of Monarchs lives about 2 to 4 weeks.  In late August, early September when the days are shorter and cooler, the Monarch that emerges from the chrysalis is different from the four to five generations that preceded it.  This generation of Monarchs has a special name attached to it. It is called the Methuselah generation named after the prophet from the Old Testament that reportedly lived 900 years.  It is this unique generation that will live about 5-6 months and make the arduous annual migration to central Mexico including flying non-stop across the Gulf of Mexico.

This generation of Monarchs will not sexually mature after emerging from its chrysalis but instead will drink copious amounts of nectar to fuel its 2,500 mile flight to Mexico. Its unique fate is to winter in the trees of the Oyemel Fir forests in central Mexico with millions of other Monarchs. The following February or March, as the first Milkweed plants start to emerge in Mexico and reach the height of 4”, the Monarchs sexually mature, leave their winter roost, mate and lay their eggs as they head north. After laying their eggs, they will die and a new generation will be born. It will take about 3 or 4 generations before we see the Monarch in New England again in early summer. Their arrival here is timed just as our Milkweed plants start to emerge. And so the cycle of the Marvelous Monarch begins again!

 

This past winter the population of wintering Monarchs in central Mexico was at the lowest number ever recorded in the 16 years of record keeping.  How much of that decline is due to the continued loss of the natural environments of milk weed plants along the eastern seaboard due to urban sprawl or to other factors such as harsh weather conditions or the use of pesticides, has yet to be determined.  No matter what the cause or causes, each one of us can make a difference in the success of the Monarch by planting its host plant, the milkweed plant, in our gardens, or even pots on a balcony or patio. . Look for the milkweed plant called Butterfly Weed (Asclepias tuberose), or Swamp Milkweed (A.incarnata) at your favorite garden center or nursery store in June. Pick a nice sunny spot in your flower garden. This perennial plant has a long tap root and once planted cannot be easily moved.  If you have a large area you can plant Common Milkweed (A. syriaca), which has a tendency to spread. 

With education comes understanding which brings appreciation and love which fosters the wish to help preserve and protect. This year you can decide to make a difference and help the Monarch butterfly by utilizing whatever property you have and plant just one milk weed plant. 

 Catherine Carney-Feldman is a member of the Ipswich Conservation Commission and owner of a landscape and garden design company, Shamrock Acres, based on native plantings and organic and environmentally 

sound principles.

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