I've been nurturing a small stand of milkweeds plants for several years ... starting with one lone plant...there are now 10 plants. Why am I encouraging what's commonly known as a "weed" plant? Because monarch butterflies lay their eggs on milkweed plants and the caterpillars (larvae) of monarch butterflies eat ONLY milkweed. Unfortunately, milkweed habitat is disappearing and monarch populations are in decline. One of the easiest ways to help the monarchs is to NOT destroy milkweed plants that are already established and to plant new stands to increase habitat.
The monarch lifecyle comprises the egg, larva, pupa or chrysalis, and butterfly. The lifecycle images below are from Monarch Watch, one of the longest existing educational outreach programs in the United States.
There are two populations of monarchs in the North America, those that breed in the East and those that breed in the West. Each fall millions of these butterflies leave their breeding grounds and fly to overwintering sites. The Eastern population overwinters in the volcanic mountains of eastern Michoacan in central Mexico. The Western breeders spend their winters along the California coast.
Monarch eggs and caterpillars have a lot of predators, which is why my neighbor Laura rescues all that she can. The photo below is from her butterfly tent. She currently has several eggs, about 40 eggs caterpillars in different larval stages, and a few in the chrysalis stage. Her sister participates in the monarch tagging (yes, they tag monarchs to follow them!) program and she has almost 500 caterpillars in her sanctuary!
The University of Maine Cooperative Extension has a photo-filled website on monarch butterflies. You can access it at http://umaine.edu/home-and-garden-ipm/photo-gallery/curiosities/monarchbutterfly-2/. If you are interested in conservation, migration, tagging, or any other aspect of the monarch butterfly, you will find information at the Monarch Watch website, http://monarchwatch.org.
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Butterflies are beautiful and everybody would like seeing it flying in your garden. Their bright colors helps eliminate stress and can bring happiness.