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Saturday, July 16. 2022

How long do butterflies and moths live?

Like most other bugs, their "adult" reproductive phases are usually brief - a week or two. However, their time as eggs, larvae (in this case, caterpillars), and pupae varies depending on species and climate.


Some even migrate (eg Monarchs) and some, like Mourning Cloaks, (photo) hibernate, which is why you sometimes see them fully-fledged on the first warm days of Spring. Tough buggers, live on tree sap.


How long do butterflies and moths live?


How Long Do Butterflies Live?


How Long Do Butterflies Live?


Posted by Bird Dog in Natural History and Conservation at 14:18 | Comments (12) | Trackbacks (0)

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If time and space, as sages say,
Are things that cannot be,
The little bee that lives a day
Has lived as long as we.

Thomas Eliot, juvenilia
#1 Luke Lea (Link) on 2015-07-02 15:20 (Reply)
very nice post
#2 Salon in Surat (Link) on 2016-07-28 04:03 (Reply)
No individual Monarch migrates the whole distance. It takes as many as 5 generations to travel the entire distance and another 5 to get back which is even more amazing.
#3 FRP on 2019-08-03 18:57 (Reply)
Really? I never heard that before. Can you tell us where you learned it? Researchers have been tagging Monarchs for years so I'd think they'd have it sorted out by now.

But I'm not in the trade, so maybe the info hasn't migrated into general knowledge yet. So to speak.
#3.1 Phidippus on 2019-08-03 22:38 (Reply)
Each fall, millions of monarch butterflies leave their summer breeding grounds in the northeastern U.S. and Canada and travel upwards of 3,000 miles to reach overwintering grounds in southwestern Mexico.

But unlike birds or wildebeest that also embark on epic migrations, these individual butterflies will never return...

https://www.nationalgeographic.com/news/2017/10/monarch-butterfly-migration/
#3.1.1 Not Sure on 2019-08-04 12:40 (Reply)
Not giving them my email address to read the linked article, so maybe the answer is in there.

What's the point of the migration if it takes five generations? AFAIK migrations are made to get to a place more suited for the purpose of carrying on the species. If pretty much any place along the way is amenable for the next generation to be born, why travel 3000 miles? Obviously I'm missing something. I can see if all individual butterflies that make the journey to Mexico die there after creating the next generation, like salmon heading upstream to spawn and die, but the salmon don't spawn until they reach their final destination.
#3.1.1.1 RJP on 2021-07-19 18:27 (Reply)
Nature is wonderful and mysterious and owes us no explanations. We can hypothesize based on observations, but we probably never will completely understand the why.
#3.1.1.1.1 RebeccaH on 2022-07-17 14:27 (Reply)
All true, but my question is basically, what is the current hypothesis explaining the evolutionary value of a migration that takes five generations?
#3.1.1.1.1.1 RJP on 2022-07-17 16:54 (Reply)
I recommend "Bugs! A Rainforest Adventure" narrated by Dame Judi Dench.
#4 Frances on 2019-08-04 21:16 (Reply)
Mourning cloaks are also seen on the last warm days of fall here on the western slope of the Blue Ridge in Maryland. They are a sure sign of springs arrival for me, and also my favorite "flutterby".
#5 benniebob19 (Link) on 2020-07-30 18:43 (Reply)
Seven minutes.
#6 ccoffer on 2022-07-16 14:26 (Reply)
And then there is the artic moth that hibernates over winter and may take 10-12 yrs of summer eating to get large enough and have accumulated enough energy to pupate. Of course the adult stage gets a few weeks or month to lay new eggs and then it is over.
#7 sch on 2022-07-21 15:43 (Reply)

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