Four Generations

I’m posting miscellaneous info this week, and yesterday I posted the one poem by Dickinson that includes the word “miscellaneous,” “From cocoon forth a butterfly,” a wonderful poem about a day in the life of a butterfly.

Of course, the average lifespan of a butterfly varies depending on the species, environment, and diet, but most adult butterflies live for only one or two weeks. 

In Dickinson’s poem, human observers see nothing but “miscellaneous enterprise” in the flitting around of the butterfly — but the clovers understand what’s going on — there is real struggle and design and purpose.

And get this — I find this astounding:  You know about the annual migration of Monarch butterflies from Mexico to North America and back?

Well, that journey is not made each year by singular butterflies; instead the trek is made by four different generations of butterflies — and each generation has different roles in the migration cycle:

• In the first generation,  butterflies emerge and migrate from Mexico to the southern United States

• Those butterflies die as second and third generations emerge  and fly further north as they lay their eggs. ​

• A fourth generation of butterflies then migrates south to return to the forests and  mountains of central Mexico — exactly where the first generation began — so the trip is completed not by one but by four butterflies — and the fourth generation butterflies know to return exactly where their great-grandparents began.

How astonishing is that?!? 

By the way, I mentioned yesterday that Dickinson referred to butterflies in 44 different poems, but she never mentioned a monarch butterfly specifically (she used the word “monarch” in three different poems, and none of them include the word “butterfly”).

And just FYI: “The monarch butterfly was first described by Carl Linnaeus in 1758 in his Systema Naturae. However, the name "monarch" is believed to have come from early European settlers to North America who were so fond of Prince William of Orange, who later became King William III of England, king from 1689 until his death in 1702 (and half of the “William and Mary” monarchy). The butterfly's main color is the same as the Prince of Orange's secondary title. Another theory is that the colonists thought the gold rim around the chrysalis resembled the king's crown.”