 Butterfly body sections are the same as all
insects - head with compound eyes and two knobbed antennae, the
thorax with six legs and two sets of wings covered in tiny scales, and
an abdomen. The butterfly is now 3 ½ to 4” and finished growing.
Nectar is used for energy during the remaining two to five weeks of life.
In 7-10 days the butterflies will be
ready to mate. That is when the black pockets of the males are used to
release pheromones to attract the females.
The female will lay 100’s of eggs
(400-900) usually on the underside of young toxic milkweed leaves. She is
ensuring the next generation of a food source which will not only nourish
them but make them taste terrible to predators. The new caterpillar's bold yellow,
black and white stripes will announce to all “don’t eat me!” After laying her eggs and delighting all who see her gracefully fluttering in the air, she returns to the earth as her short life ends. |
He
sprinkles her with his perfume and grasps her with his feet and they
flutter to the ground. For the next ten minutes or more it looks like a
wrestling match as they get into position. The female folds her wings and
the male flies with her dangling upside down to the tops of trees where
they will remain together for hours. The male may mate three times before
dying.
