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🦋 The Monarch Butterfly: How a Tiny Insect Flies 4,000 Kilometres A monarch butterfly weighs less than a paper clip. Its orange and black wings look thin enough to break in the wind. And yet every autumn, millions of these butterflies fly from Canada and the north of the USA all the way to Mexico. For some of them, the journey is more than 4,000 kilometres long. The most surprising part is this: no butterfly makes the trip twice. The butterflies that fly south have never been to Mexico before. Their parents and grandparents never went there either. So how do they know the way? Scientists think monarchs use the Sun like a compass. A clock inside their body — partly in their antennae — tells them the time of day, so they can understand where the Sun should be and keep flying south. They may also feel the Earth's magnetic field. Their goal is a small group of mountains in central Mexico, in the states of Michoacán and México. There, high in cool forests of oyamel fir trees, millions of butterflies hang together on the branches. The trees turn orange, as if they were covered in autumn leaves. For years, scientists did not know where the monarchs went. They found the main forests only in 1975. The butterflies rest there all winter. In spring, they start flying north, lay eggs on milkweed plants and die. Their children continue the journey, and then their grandchildren. It takes several generations to reach Canada again. Most of these summer butterflies live only a few weeks. But the last generation of the year is special: it can live about eight months — long enough to fly all the way back to Mexico. Today, monarchs are in danger. Their caterpillars eat only milkweed, and much of this plant has disappeared from farms and roadsides. The winter forests are also smaller than before. In recent years, the number of monarchs in Mexico has been much lower than in the past. Many people now plant milkweed in gardens and schoolyards to help. Protecting the monarch means protecting a journey that connects three countries — and that has amazed people for generations. Photos: Thomas Bresson (CC BY 2.0), Rhododendrites (CC BY-SA 4.0) · Wikimedia Commons #daily_article 📰 Join: @Mock_Stream