The monarch butterfly is the only member of it's subfamily, the Dainainae or “milkweed butterflies” to occur in Canada. Two other species in the group are found in the southern United States and one more in central America. The family is mainly old world in origin. Some other species exhibit regional migratory tendencies but the monarch migration in Eastern North America is by far the longest among the Lepidoptera, and most well studied of any seasonally driven insect migration. The majority of British Columbia butterfly records occur below the latitude of the confluence of the Fraser and Thompson rivers, with a conspicuous concentration in the Okanagan valley.
Monarch
Confluence of the Fraser and Thompson River: Lytton
ReplyDelete