A passel of monarch butterfly caterpillars, Danaus plexippus, were denuding some milkweed around the waterworks at the Brooklyn Bridge Park recently.
The monarch is probably our most familiar butterfly. The generation we see here may be the one that, come winged adulthood, makes the epic long march of a flight towards the cool cloud forests of central Mexico. For the next couple of weeks, you’ll see the adults along our coasts, being butted about by the winds, getting ready to go. Will you wonder, like me, how, how, how will they ever make it that far?
Backyard and Beyond 
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