Today we have some lovely lepidopterans courtesy of reader Joe Dickinson. Most of you are aware of the mass migrations of the monarch, which are one of the wonders of nature. (If you don’t know about this, read the short description at the link.) Joe has documented one of the roosting and breeding sites in California.
I recently checked out the Santa Cruz butterfly trees for the first time this year looking, of course, for monarch butterflies (Danaus plexippus). The population at the best known site, Natural Bridges State Park, seemed larger than I have seen there in recent years but my favorite site, Lighthouse Field, was virtually a bust. The former site also had a nice display of larvae and pupae by the visitor center.
The caterpillars are aposematic (warningly colored) as they are distasteful:
Beautiful shots!
About 8 years ago the horse chestnut tree in my back yard (west of Toronto) was covered with monarchs for about an hour one afternoon. Seems to gave been a one-time thing, sadly.
Very interesting! The larvae seem to have wider black stripes than the ones I see here in Michigan.
One of my earliest memories is being at a neighbors’ house, and finding a bush that was absolutely solid orange with roosting monarchs. Some experiences just stay with you.
We have several migrating butterflies in Europe, but none of them in such concentrations. I’m a bit jealous…
I like the picture of the chrysalises – they look definitively vegetal, like some strange acorns.
It’s a good thing there are several destinations for these creatures. There rather fragile populations will likely need refugia to withstand human habitat destruction.
Oddly there are a few monarchs down here in the mountains of eastern Ecuador. Don’t know where they come from, I suppose they are a resident population, but they are always a welcome reminder of my North American home.
Wow – now that’s a lot of butterflies! Nice to see so many!
The large clump in the first photo is perhaps ten percent of a major concentration extending along two large branches above a fork.
During World War II we had lots and lots of Monarchs in northern Michigan. Everybody was growing the plant used for parachutes in the war. That is Monarch food.
The plant growing in northern Michigan during WWII was milkweed. At that time, milkweed pods were used in parachutes and flotation devices. Monarchs were plentiful during those years.