I never thought to look for a beard, LOL!
Actually, I see that the Males have a ‘black dot’ low on their wings. And the Females have thicker and more sturdy wings with no black dot because THEY DO ALL OF THE HEAVY LIFTING! ;)
https://monarchbutterflygarden.net/female-or-male-monarch-butterfly-pictures/
OK! Fine! Force me to LEARN SOMETHING today, LOL!
Yes, that dot in the inner wing is the tell-tale on boys. You can only see it well from one side (the top side), and only when the wings open fully. It takes a few hours for them to open them fully.
*** OK! Fine! Force me to LEARN SOMETHING today, LOL!***
I feel like I have been drinking from a fire hose learning about monarchs the last 6 weeks. Every day, I look up something else.
Two plus weeks ago, I was coaxing (30+) caterpillars from one milkweed plant to another, so that they had fresh food every day. The good news is that once they were in chrysalis form, I didn’t have to keep feeding them or cleaning up their poop.
Thursday night going into Friday, it will go below 55 here again. That means the habitat will come back inside at night. I am only halfway there!!!
What was I thinking? This is like having 30+ newborns to check on every day. I’m happy to foster them, but yeah, I had no idea what I was getting into.