monarch butterfly

Table of Contents

References & Edit History Quick Facts & Related Topics

Images, Videos & Interactives

Monarch butterfly on Buddleja

Monarch butterfly life cycle

Monarch caterpillar and butterfly

Monarch butterfly chrysalis

Monarch butterfly

Monarch butterfly migration explained

Interactive thumbnail shows an animated map of monarch butterfly seasonal migration.

The video thumbnail image shows a monarch butterfly perched on a plant with purple flowers.

Moths vs. butterflies: Can you tell the difference?

life cycle of the monarch butterfly

For Students

monarch butterfly summary

Read Next

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Cheetah (Acinonyx jubatus) standing on rock, side view, Masai Mara National Reserve, Kenya

The Fastest Animals on Earth

Big beaver gnawing on limb at river's edge

6 Animal Species that Mate for Life

Discover

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Clouds of smoke rise from fires at the World Trade Center Towers as a result of terrorist attack on September 11, 2001. Photographed 9:54 am in Lower Manhattan.

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Ice Sledge Hockey, Hockey Canada Cup, USA (left) vs Canada, 2009. UBC Thunderbird Arena, Vancouver, BC, competition site for Olympic ice hockey and Paralympic ice sledge hockey. Vancouver 2010 Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games, Vancouver Olympics

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The Colosseum, Rome, Italy. Giant amphitheatre built in Rome under the Flavian emperors. (ancient architecture; architectural ruins)

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Turtle, tortoise, reptile. Uses assets 88582 & 89606

What’s the Difference Between a Turtle and a Tortoise?

The Fortune-Teller, oil on canvas by Georges de La Tour, probably the 1630s; in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York City. (101.9 x 123.5 cm.) (The Fortune Teller)

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monarch butterfly: Facts & Related Content

Written and fact-checked by The Information Architects of Encyclopaedia Britannica

Last Updated: Apr 18, 2025

Facts

Also Known As	Danaus plexippus

Photos and Videos

Monarch butterfly on Buddleja

Monarch butterfly life cycle

Monarch butterfly chrysalis

Monarch butterfly

life cycle of the monarch butterfly

Monarch butterfly

Monarch butterfly migration explained

The video thumbnail image shows a monarch butterfly perched on a plant with purple flowers.

Moths vs. butterflies: Can you tell the difference?

Watch a caterpillar larva eat milkweed, form a pupa, and emerge as a monarch butterfly

Observe a monarch butterfly coming out of its chrysalis

See All Videos, Images, Interactives and Podcasts →

Topics

common garden insects and their larvae Asclepiadoideae

Quiz

Lion (panthera leo)

Deadliest Animals Quiz

vulture. An adult bearded vulture at a raptor recovery center. The Gypaetus barbatus also known as the Lammergeier or Lammergeyer, is a bird of prey and considered an Old World vulture.

Animal Factoids

Mute swan with cygnet. (birds)

Match the Baby Animal to Its Mama Quiz

wasp. Vespid Wasp (Vespidaea) with antennas and compound eyes drink nectar from a cherry. Hornets largest eusocial wasps, stinging insect in the order Hymenoptera, related to bees. Pollination

Know Your Bugs Quiz

Sea otter (Enhydra lutris), also called great sea otter, rare, completely marine otter of the northern Pacific, usually found in kelp beds. Floats on back. Looks like sea otter laughing. saltwater otters

Animal Group Names