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Butterflies live a rather complicated life cycle. Depending on the time of year that a monarch emerges, they will react in different ways.
Late summer early fall monarchs tend to be physically and behaviorally different from those that come out in spring or early summer. Usually these butterflies go into a reproductive diapause. Diapause is a states of stopped development of the reproductive organs.
Reproductive diapause is manipulated by the nervous system and other hormones. Unfavorable environmental conditions also brings the onset of diapause in monarchs. The factors that truly affect it are day length, temperature, and host-plant quality.
Some butterflies migrate in the south, central America, or they may even go to Mexico, to escape from the harsh and cold winter. In the spring they flutter back to their warm homes in the United States and Canada. Such a fast movement is called migration. One of these butterflies that migrates is monarch. It is the winner of long distance. The monarch can travel as far as 2000 miles, from Canada and the Northern States to California, Florida, and Mexico.
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