The wings of the Monarch butterfly caught my eye when I was mowing and I had to slow down a few times for it to move out of the way. Monarch butterflies are known for the incredible mass migration in the fall before the cold weather moves in, which could be 3,000 miles, that brings millions of them to California and Mexico each winter.

Monarch butterflies go through four stages during one life cycle (egg, larvae, pupa and adult butterfly) and through four generations in one year. The first three generations in the year have short life span of 2 to 6 weeks, and only the monarchs born in late summer or early fall live six to eight months and make the migration, and they make only one round trip when they return in the spring to lay the eggs before dying. It is the spring migrators’ great grandchildren that make the trip in the fall returning on the same routes and even sometimes to the same tree as their ancestors.

The King of Butterflies