The Monarch Butterfly

We know it's autumn when the Monarch Butterfly returns to this area. Monarch Butterflies do not live here year round. They migrate. That means that they fly from one area to another. Some migrations are short. Some migrations are long. Would you believe the Monarch Butterfly flies up to 6,000 miles in one year!!! Inch per inch, that would be like us walking around the Earth four times a year! Yikes!

Why do they migrate? Well, in the winter, you and I can put on sweaters when we get cold. But a Monarch cannot. And a Monarch has to keep warm, so it flies to a warmer part of the Earth in the winter. Monarchs go to Canada and the northern part of the United States in the summer. Then they turn around and go back to Mexico and the southern United States in the winter.

Monarchs land on flowers. When they do, their feet and "faces" get covered in pollen. Pollen is the yellow dusty stuff that is found in the middle of a flower. Pollen is made up of tiny yellow grains. The butterfly carries these pollen grains from one flower to another. The pollen from the butterfly into a different flower. When it lands on the middle of the flower, the pollen grain starts to grow a tube into the flower. The tube reaches the inside of the flower. Then the inside of a flower changes into a seed. The seed drops and turns into another plant. This is why the plant needs butterflies.

Flowers make nectar. Nectar is sweet juice that Monarchs love to drink. The butterfly has on its head an amazing device called a proboscis (pro-bahs-kiss). It acts like a curled up drinking straw. The proboscis uncurls into the flower. Sweet nectar gets sucked up into it the proboscis. The sugar in the nectar gives Monarchs energy to live. This is why the Monarch needs the flower.

So plants need animals, and animals need plants. What do you get from plants. What do plants get from you?

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