Hi everyone! I’m Melanie the Monarch butterfly! I’m not trying to be selfish, but, I’m pretty cool. First of all, my wings are beautiful! Did you know they alert my predators that I will make them sick? I know right? Pretty cool! Every year, I migrate with all the other Monarchs, to Mexico or southern California. My generation of butterflies won’t make the full trip, it will take a few generations. But that doesn’t matter, at least I will start the trip, then my sons or daughters will continue it. On the way we face many dangers, like swallowtails, cars, and other dangerous things, and every time we go, we get confused, because there is no nectar and milkweed where it normally is! once we reach our destination, we get very picky about which trees we stay the winter in, if we’re in California, we will stay in Eucalyptus trees, if we’re in Mexico, we will stay in Oyamel Fir trees. The area that we cover in the trees used to be huge! now it’s very tiny.

We Monarch butterflies have a very cool way of knowing when to leave, well actually three cool ways. One way is decreasing day length, when the days get shorter, we know to leave. But only if we are a butterfly that is exposed to that way of knowing. Another way is fluctuating temperature, when the temperature drops and rises irregularly. The last way is host plant quality, when Milkweed starts dying. We lay our eggs on milkweed, so we need it! our population is going way down, help us!

Thanks for reading, Melanie