Monarch caterpillars rule all the realm they can see. And they can see a lot, because they have 12 eyes! On each side of their head, they have 6 tiny eyelets, called stemmata, arranged in a semi-circle.
The cold-blooded fact about Monarchs is that they are cold-blooded, which means they cannot regulate their own body temperatures. If the air temperature falls below 55ºF, butterflies are unable to flee from predators or feed. Butterflies fly with ease when air...
Sugar alone cannot sustain a Monarch. They also need a little spice in the form of minerals. They supplement their nectar diet by occasionally sipping from mud puddles, which are rich in minerals and salt.
Illinois Monarchs are only here on temporary visas, but they stay for generations! There are 4 generations of Monarchs each year. The first 3 generations live for 2 to 6 weeks. The last generation is the one that migrates back to Mexico, where it lives 6 to 8...
Don’t eat a Monarch! The Monarch butterfly stores a poison called cardiac glycosides that they ingest when feeding on the leaves of the milkweed foliage as caterpillars. The poison protects them from vertebrate animals like birds, frogs and lizards, but not...
Monarch caterpillars don’t have time to read books and watch TV. They spend all day eating, gaining 2700 times their original weight over a 5 to 10-day span before they transform into a chrysalis.
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