Illustrated by Rebecca	Illustrated by Hunter
Illustrated by  Alejandro	no name

The Monarch is called Danaus Plexippus, which is Greek for “sleepy transformation.”  The adult butterfly has the same major parts as the larva: head, thorax, and abdomen.  The head includes eyes, antennae, and a proboscis.  Its enormous compound eyes sense light and images.  The butterfly’s tongue looks like and stick and it is used to suck nectar.  When it is not in use the tongue curls up.  The body has six legs, but it looks like there are only four because the front two legs are small and are curled up.

Each butterfly has two orange-reddish wings.  The wings have black veins and white spots along the edges.  Two muscles help the wings in the air and let the butterfly have a sense of smell.  Male Monarchs have one dot on each back wing.  Females are smaller than the males and have only about a four inch wingspan.

Monarch butterflies weigh .25 to .75 g.  They can live about 2.6 weeks in the summer.  Monarchs that fly to Mexico live longer.  (picture by) Summer butterflies mate and the Monarch mother lays eggs on the Milkweed leaf.  She can lay as many as 600 eggs, but only a few survive. 

By: Sonja Craddock, Rebecca Sabean, Morgan McKnight, Brennen McAllister, and Hunter Herbert