Monarch Butterfly

           Danaus plexippus

 

Monarch Butterflies Monarch Butterfly
The beautiful Monarch butterfly from North America (also N. Atlantic and S. Pacific rim) is like an orange stained-glass window. Monarch butterflies flock together to migrate from northern USA/southern Canada to Mexico/Central America in the autumn and return north in the spring, although, since the butterfly lives for 6 weeks, it is later generations of the butterfly that return north.
Monarch Butterfly female Monarch Butterfly male
The female Monarch is a little darker with thicker, darker black veins The male Monarch is a little brighter orange and has two black scent marks on the hind wing
Monarch butterfly male Monarch butterfly male Monarch butterfly
Male Monarch butterflies
Monarch butterfly female Monarch butterfly Monarch butterfly female
   Female Monarch butterflies  
Monarch butterfly Monarch butterfly Monarch butterfly side
 Side view of the stained-glass window  On its favourite nectar and larval host, the Milkweed plant
     

    Links:

Monarch egg Monarch caterpillar Monarch pupa  Monarch pupa  Monarch pupa  Monarch butterfly emerging from pupa
Egg Caterpillar Pupating Pupa/Chrysalis  Pupa/Chrysalis   Emergence