Monarch Butterfly |
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Monarch butterflies (Danaus plexippus) are famous for their epic long distance migrations, which can extend for 3,000 miles from the great plains of southern Canada to threatened overwintering sites high in the mountains of central Mexico. To help protect monarchs visit www.michoacanmonarchs.org.
Monarchs start life as a cone-shaped egg laid by females on the underside of poisonous milkweed leaves. The egg hatches into a black and yellow striped caterpillar which feeds on milkweed, to which it is immune, before transforming into a satiny green chrysalis and then metamorphosizing into a butterfly. |
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