Above, you see a male monarch butterfly on goldenrod trying to reenergize himself after chasing females all morning. Below, you’ll see a somewhat-worn female laying eggs on a common milkweed leaf:
I think these two orange beauties are the second-to-last generation of their kind here, and that we’re probably seeing them perform their last hurrahs before they die.
Monarch generations live from two to five weeks during their breeding season here. The second-to-last last generation of Maine monarchs will produce the fertilized eggs on milkweed that will become the fancy striped caterpillars of late summer that look like all others. But, they’re not.
Those last caterpillars will transform themselves (pupate) into special monarch butterflies that will have delayed reproduction capabilities. They’ll use all their considerable energies to migrate to central Mexico, where they’ll overwinter and produce a new generation of Mexican monarchs.
That new Mexican generation will include the monarchs that start the generational relay race called the spring eastern monarch migration. Maine will be one of the last stops for some of the more adventurous migrators, and the cycle will continue unbroken if conditions allow.
Whether those conditions will allow is questionable, as you’ve read many times in these posts. (Images taken in Brooklin, Maine, on August 15 and 16, 2024.)