Research Paper On Monarch Butterfly

The critter that I have is the Danaus Plexippus, more commonly known as the monarch butterfly. Every monarch butterfly is bright orange with white spots on it. To the left is a picture of a monarch butterfly. It is also shown in its natural habitat, any type of tropical forest. They need to live in a tropical forest because they need to be in a warm climate in order for them to survive. Furthermore, accordinging to BioKids, “Monarch butterflies are found in North America, South America, the Caribbean, Australia, New Zealand, islands in the Pacific Ocean, Mauritius, the Canary Islands of the Atlantic, and Western Europe.” This makes perfect sense considering that they must be in a warm climate all of the time. All of the places listed there …show more content…
This is because this is where they lay their eggs, so they must be nearby at all times. However, male monarch butterflies do not have such a specific diet. Males can feed on nectar from almost any type of flower. On the other hand, they have special features that help them stay safe from their predators. For example, they are orange, which in terms of predation, means that they are dangerous to eat. This helps them fight off predators. Likewise, they have some special adaptations that help them to easily survive. Their white spots, from a distance, look like the eyes of a bigger organism, according to BioKids. This adaptation scares off the monarch butterflies’ predators. Furthermore, according to Animal Diversity Web, from a distance, monarch butterflies can blend in with their surroundings. As shown on the left, the animals look as they are almost part of the leaves and part of the tree bark.This picture was taken in the butterfly's natural habitat, a temperate forest. Geographically, this picture was taken in California. Furthermore, monarch butterflies are poisonous, which can be told by predators because they know about the orange color ‘warning’ …show more content…
However, there are many more insects classified as arthropods other than just monarch butterflies. Furthermore, monarch butterflies are classified under the Lepidoptera order. This order consists of only very closely related organisms, such as moths and butterflies. They are classified under the Nymphalidae family. This family consists of “brush-footed butterflies.” They are classified this way because their front legs are shorter than all of the other ones. As you can tell from the imagine on the right, the front legs are so small that you can barely see them. This is a unique characteristic of the monarch butterfly’s family. Finally, the monarch butterfly is classified under the Danaus plexippus species. Commonly, this species is called monarch butterflies. Also, as stated before, one of the main characteristics about them is that they are