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Butterflies, a Metamorphosis

Monarch Butterfly

Metamorphosis is… the process of growing up by turningfrom one thinginto another, a major change.

Terri HallJuly 14, 2007

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Monarch Butterflies

Eating Habits: Butterflies eat constantly during the first two weeks of life and feed on flowers and plants thereafter.

Favorite flower/plant: Milkweed

Predator: Predatory birds and humans using pesticides (poison on crops and pastures) and the cutting down of the trees they live on.

Defense: Most Monarchs butterflies are poisonous to predatory birds because of a special chemical in milkweed.

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Some Facts about Butterflies

A butterfly is an insect.

Butterfly wings are made of scales.

The butterfly life cycle starts with an egg, when born they are called a caterpillar (larval stage), move into a cocoon becoming a chrysalis (pupal stage) and emerge as an adult butterfly.

Range: Each Autumn, thousands of Monarch Butterflies gather in southern Canada to migrate south, You can find butterflies almost all over the world. They migrate about 3000 miles, some from Mexico to California.

Butterflies usually eat flower nectar and milkweed. Because of this, they are important to the life cycle of many flowers. Butterflies also need minerals, which they usually get from water found in dirt and sand.

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Most Butterflies Are Very Colorful

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Species Names: Danaus Plexippus ( Monarch Butterflies)

More Facts about Butterflies: Butterflies can be found almost all over the world. There may be

as many as twenty thousand different species of butterflies.

Caterpillars use a special gland in their mouths to weave a small silk button underneath a twig or leaf and attaches its tail end to the lump and hangs upside down in the shape of a "J". It wriggles for up to five hours to shed its skin for the fifth and last time. It looks like a giant green water drop.

If you harm a Monarch in Pacific Grove, California, you will receive a $500 fine, since they are in danger of extinction.

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Write what you have learned about butterflies inside the outline