The monarch butterfly is a beautiful and colorful creature, but it takes time to reach this stage of its adult life. Understanding a few facts about the process lets you observe it in nature with ease ...

The monarch butterfly life cycle begins with a whirl of wings in the heat of the summer sun. As a female monarch sips nectar from a wildflower, a male hovers nearby. A pheromone is released from tiny ...

IT’S LIVE! Chrysalis Cam is up and running. Check back from time to to time to see how our future monarch butterflies are doing. Monarch butterflies go through four stages during one life cycle, and ...

A butterfly’s beginnings are wondrous. Gently nestled in its cocoon, a caterpillar transforms into a fairylike creature with meticulously laid out, iridescent scales layered upon each wing. Piece by ...

Engineers have continuously observed scales growing and assembling on a butterfly wing for the first time as the developing insect transforms inside its chrysalis. If you brush against the wings of a ...

One of the best-known poems by Gerard Manley Hopkins opens with a tribute to the phenomenon of iridescence. It’s represented by the colorful wings of kingfishers and dragonflies in Hopkins’ poem, but ...

The Gazette offers audio versions of articles using Instaread. Some words may be mispronounced. We love to look at butterflies because of their beauty and colors, but you can also enjoy a close look ...