September 12, 2007
Beauty upon Beauty
Monarch Butterfly (Daunus plexippus)
on New England Aster (Synphiotrichum novae-angliae)
A Monarch drinks nectar from flowers in the Water Department bioswale. This butterefly may be one of the generation nicknamed "Methuselahs" because many of them fly all of the way from their birthplace in North America to Mexico, where they overwinter. In the spring they begin migrating northward, but it is their children and grandchildren who finish the northward journey and complete the cycle.