Windwolf
Crex Meadows Butterflies... Monarch
Monarch
Danaus plexippus
Wing span: 3 3/8 - 4 7/8 inches (8.6 - 12.4 cm).
Caterpillar hosts: Milkweeds including common milkweed (Asclepias syriaca), swamp milkweed (A. incarnata), and showy milkweed (A. speciosa); and milkweed vine in the tropics.
Eggs laid singly on host; caterpillars eat leaves and flowers.
Habitat: Many open habitats including fields, meadows, weedy areas, marshes, and roadsides.
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Picture taken June 20, 2007
This very young caterpiller was not the intended target of the photo. After I got home as I was going through the pictures, I spotted this little guy in the milkweed flowers.
Picture on left and below taken June 20, 2007
| Kingdom | Animalia | (Animals) |
| Phylum | Arthropoda | (Arthropods) |
| Superclass | Hexapoda | (Hexapods) |
| Class | Insecta | (Insects) |
| Subclass | Pterygota | (Winged Insects) |
| Order | Lepidoptera | (Butterflies and Moths) |
| Superfamily | Papilionoidea | (Butterflies) |
| Family | Nymphalidae | (Brushfooted Butterflies) |
| Subfamily | Danainae | (Milkweed Butterflies) |
| Genus | Danaus | |
| Species | plexippus | (Monarch) |