📸 PhotoPhoto: Didier Descouens · CC BY-SA 4.0 · Wikimedia Commons Source
Monarch butterfly
Danaus plexippus (Monarch butterfly · オオカバマダラ)
💡 Everyday Comparisons for Size, Mass & Speed
- 💡 Its wingspan of 12.4 cm is about 60% of the short side of an A4 sheet of paper (21 cm) (Comparison).
- 💡 ADW notes that this butterfly's overwintering sites attract tourists and that it is regarded as a beneficial insect for reducing milkweeds that are poisonous to livestock such as cattle.
Reference standards: coach bus ~12 m, mid-size car ~4.9 m, compact car ~1 t, basketball hoop 3.05 m, credit card 8.56 cm.
📖 1. Overview
The monarch butterfly is a large butterfly with vivid black borders and veins on orange wings, and every autumn millions of individuals migrate from their breeding grounds to overwintering sites. The IUCN assessed it as Least Concern (LC) in 2022.
🦴 2. Anatomy & Morphology
Both males and females have black borders and black veins over a bright orange background, and females have thicker veins. Males have a swollen pouch on the hindwings. Because it carries poison obtained from milkweed, its orange color serves as a warning color to predators.
🔍 3. Ecology & Behavior
Caterpillars feed on milkweed plants (genus Asclepias) and sequester cardiac glycosides to deter predators, while adults feed on flower nectar. The eastern population overwinters in the volcanic mountains of Michoacán in central Mexico, and the western population overwinters along the California coast.
🇰🇷 4. Connection to Korea
No direct record connecting this species to Korea has been found.
📚 Sources & References
- • IUCN Red List LC (2022) — https://www.iucnredlist.org/species/159971/219149911
- • IUCN Red List category LC — latest assessment at iucnredlist.org
- • catalogueoflife.org — 6CB8P
- • iucnredlist.org — 219149911
- • wikidata.org — Q212398
- • commons.wikimedia.org — File:Danaus plexippus MHNT.jpg
- • animaldiversity.org — Danaus plexippus
- • Silhouette: PhyloPic — Andy Wilson · CC0 1.0
Recorded dimensions are widely cited representative estimates from public literature and may vary by study or specimen.