This presentation is about the rearing and lifecycle study of Monarch butterfly/Plain tiger. Insect rearing is not only educational but also enjoyable. These presentation is written form of my rearing experience.

1. A presentation on
Presented by:
Suraj Poudel(Roll no.60)
Bsc Ag, 6th Semester
IAAS, Paklihawa Campus
Presented to:
Asst.Prof Shiva Shankar Bhattarai
Department of Entomology
IAAS, Paklihawa Campus
Rearing of Monarch Butterfly and its
lifecycle study.

2. Classification:
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Arthopoda
Class: Insecta
Order: Lepidoptera
Super-Family: Papillionidae
Family: Nymphalidae
Genus: Danus
Species: plexippus

3. Introduction:
• The monarch butterfly or simply monarch (Danaus plexippus) is a milkweed butterfly
in the family Nymphalidae.
• Other common names depending on region include milkweed, common
tiger, wanderer, and black veined brown.
• Monarchs are large, beautifully colored butterflies that are easy to recognize by
their striking orange, black, and white markings.
• A monarch's brilliant coloring tells predators: "Don't eat me. I'm poisonous."
• The butterflies get their toxins from a plant called milkweed, which is their only food
source in the caterpillar stage.
• It is considered an iconic pollinator species.
• The most amazing thing about monarch butterflies is the enormous migration that
North American monarchs undertake each year.
• They travel more than 2000 miles in winter from Canada and America towards South
California and Mexico.
• Here, we’ll take a closer look at the life cycle of monarch butterfly.

4. Life cycle of Monarch Butterfly

5. The First Stage- Egg Stage
• Eggs are laid singly on the underside of a
young leaf of a milkweed plant during the
spring and summer months.
• The eggs are cream colored or light green,
ovate to conical in shape, and about
1.2×0.9 mm in size.
• Eggs take 3 to 8 days to develop and hatch
into larva or caterpillars.

6. The Second Stage- Larva/Caterpillar
• The caterpillars are green-and-white-striped at the
beginning.
• The caterpillars feed on the milkweed leaves.
• For about two weeks, they eat constantly and grow
by shedding their skin.
• The caterpillar goes through five major, distinct
stages of growth and after each one, it molts.
• The first instar caterpillar that emerges out of the
egg is pale green and translucent. It lacks banding
coloration or tentacles.
• The second instar larva develops a characteristic
pattern of white, yellow and black transverse bands.
• The third instar larva has more distinct bands and
the two pairs of tentacles become longer.
• The fourth instar has a different banding pattern.
• The fifth instar larva has a more complex banding
pattern.
• The larval stage is 10-14 days.

7. The Third Stage- Pupa(Chrysalis)
• During the pupal stage, the transformation
from pupa to adult is completed.
• Pupa are less mobile than larva and adult but
when they are disturbed, they often show
sudden movement.
• The caterpillar hangs upside down and forms a
silken cocoon from its old skin.
• This vase-shaped case starts out green with
shiny golden dots and slowly becomes white,
then see-through.
• The pupal stage is 10-14 days.

8. The Fourth Stage- Adult
• Once out of the pupa, the damp butterfly
inflates its wings with blood stored in its
abdomen.
• It must wait for its wings to dry before it
flies away.
• Adults are black-orange and white colour.
The colourful patterns makes easy to
identify it.
• Adult butterflies don't grow. They survive
by drinking nectar from flowers, including
milkweed, clover, and goldenrod.
• The primary job of adult is to mate, lay
eggs and continue the generation.

9. Identifying Male and Female Monarch
Male Monarch Female Monarch
Thin vein pigmentation. Thick vein pigmentation.
Swollen pouches in hind wings. No hindwings pouches.

10. Nature of Damage
• Hand picking of larva from the milkweed leaves.
• Release Trichogramma chilonis in the field @ 250,000 parasitized eggs per
ha.
• Spray Bt based commercial formulations @ 3g per litre of water.
• Spray malathion @1.5 litre in 500-1000 litres of water per ha.
Management
• It causes the loss of milkweed plants as the larva feed voraciously to the
leaves of milkweed.

11. Objective
• To know about the methods of rearing insects.
• To be able to know about the life cycle of Monarch butterfly.

12. Rearing Materials:
 Rearing bottle or box
 Insect ( larva)
 Feed (milkweed leaf)
Rearing Box

13. Methodology:
• The larva of monarch was collected from the leaf of
milkweed of IAAS farm on 2019/1/6.
• Then, it was reared in plastic rearing box.
• Leaves of milkweed was given as feed to the larva.
• With the time, larva grows and became pupa and
adult monarch finally.
• The excreta produced by larva was removed and feed
was changed daily.
• Rearing Period: From 2019/1/6 to 2019/2/7

14. Observation table:
Stage Appearance period Photos
Egg ……………………… …… …….
Larva The caterpillars are green and white- 11 days
striped at the beginning which develops
a characteristic pattern of white, yellow
and black transverse bands.
Pupa Pupa was developed in cocoon which was 20 days
green at the beginning and became white
later.
Adult Adult was emerged after 20 days and had ……
had black-orange and white colour.
it was released to the environment.

15. Some photos collected during rearing:
Larva feeding on milkweed
leaf
Pupa stage of Monarch butterfly

16. Some photos collected during rearing:
Adult of Monarch Butterfly

17. Conclusion:
• We successful reared Monarch butterfly from larval stage to
adult with complete observation and study of all the stages.
• The reared monarch was found to be male since it had thin
vein pigmentation and swollen pouches in hind wings.
• Insect rearing was not only educational, but also found to be
enjoyable.

18. References:
• Monarch-Butterfly.com. n.d Thu 18 April 2019
Available on: https://www.thebutterflysite.com/life-cycle.shtml
• National Geographic.n.d. Thu 18 April 2019
Available on: https://kids.nationalgeographic.com/animals/monarch-
butterfly/#monarch-butterfly-grass.jpg
• https://www.slideshare.net/spitts77/biology-101-power-point-
presentation-on-monarch-butterflies

19. attention!!!
for the
Thank you