Some monarch butterflies migrate 3,000 miles. Did you know this? and MORE...
Posted by Sia on January 17, 2026, 3:20 pm ADMIN
Some monarch butterflies migrate 3,000 miles.
No animal on Earth travels quite like the eastern monarch butterfly. Its journey begins in the early days of spring on a few mountains in central Mexico. Millions of the monarchs (Danaus plexippus plexippus) fill the branches of oyamel firs, and as the temperature warms up, they soak in the sun and begin their epic journey northward — a 3,000-mile trip that looks more like a bird’s migration than an insect’s.
But it’s not only the miles that make the butterfly’s journey so remarkable — it’s also the means. A typical monarch butterfly lives for only about four weeks, not nearly long enough to complete the journey to the northern U.S. and Canada. So the migration becomes a multigenerational one. In a typical year, it will take four generations for monarch butterflies to finish the seasonal quest their great-grandparents started. To return south in the fall, a “super generation” — also known as the Methuselah generation (after the long-lived biblical patriarch) because it can live eight times longer than its ancestors — will travel 50 miles a day by riding thermal currents southward before finally resting in the same oyamel firs in central Mexico. All hail the monarch!
In the early 1960s, a band was developed, attachable to the main forewing vein, with the creature's emergence origin. The band does not interfere with flight. Specimens were tracked and recorded from Canada to Mexico and from there back to Canada. Some flew the full trip both ways!
Exact location of the Mexican winter brood site remained unknown for many years. Until its discovery, banded Mexican specimens were caught in other Mexican locations north of the winter home.
The western North American population migrates west across the Rockies, to forests around Pacific Palisades, California, up to about 1500 miles.
Lepidopterists Society members capture and report all banded monarchs. When you net one, you must aim the net well above the milkweed flowers from which it draws nectar. They "hop" from force of air from the approaching net, and if the net is aimed at it, you will miss. You can look away from a painting, but you can't listen away from a symphony
on January 17, 2026, 3:20 pm
