Monarch butterflies By: Savannah Feist

Thesis Statement The milkweed plant helps the monarch butterfly fly gracefully as they migrate.

Wing Color With the upper wings a tawny-orange, the Monarch Butterflies wingspan ranges from 8.9-10.2cm. A monarch’s wings are made up of thousands of tiny, thin, flat scales. These wings are so unique, that each individual scale has its own special color.

Migration Monarchs migrate up to 2,000 miles right before winter starts. And by late fall, they come to rest in California or form huge colonies. Monarchs spend their winter in warm areas such as Texas and Florida in the United States. Scientists have been studying monarch’s flight, trying to figure out how they find their way to the mountain ranges in Mexico.

Protection Monarch butterflies protect themselves by eating milkweed plants. When they eat the milkweed plants, it causes death of their predators. There are protective chemicals that the caterpillar obtains by eating the milkweed, with it, through its metamorphosis into a butterfly.

Works cited Grace, Eric S.. The World of the Monarch Butterfly. San Francisco: Sierra Club Book For Children, 1997. Print. "Monarch (butterfly)." Wikipedia. N.p., n.d. Web. 15 Apr. 2010. <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Monarch_(butterfly)>.

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