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Monarch Butterflies are heading south and we want your help plotting their progress.
Back in March we joined the Monarch Butterflies in the forests of central Mexico as they prepared to head north on their spring migration. We heard from our reporters in the US that the Monarchs spent the summer at the northern end of their range along the US/Canadian border and now they should be streaming back to Mexico where they will over-winter.
We've provided some pictures so you know what to look out for but if you need some more description, we can tell you what to look out for:
- The Monarch has a wingspan of between 8–10 cm (3½–4 in)
- The upper side of the wings are tawny-orange, the veins and margins are black, and there are two lines of small white spots along these black margins.
- The fore wings have some orange spots near the tip. The underside is similar but the tip of the forewing and hindwing are yellow-brown instead of tawny-orange and the white spots are larger.