OTTUMWA — How does a monarch butterfly in Iowa know how to find the monarch wintering areas in Texas, Florida and Mexico?

Scientists are still scratching their heads over that one, according to Naturalist Annette Wittrock of the Wapello County Conservation staff.

Wittrock presented a monarch butterfly program Sunday at Pioneer Ridge Nature Center. She showed participants the butterfly she had caught and tagged, which is part of cooperative program with the University of Kansas.

If the tagged butterfly is found, then the university will send a notice to Wittrock. She said the monarchs follow the same migration patterns every year and know where to go to find the wintering grounds.

Wittrock said the monarch’s life cycle begins when the adult female lays eggs on the bottom sides of the leaves on some species of milkweed plant. Depending on the weather, the eggs will hatch in three to 12 days.

From that egg comes a monarch caterpillar, also called larvae. For the next two weeks, the caterpillar has the job of eating milkweed leaves and growing. They are about two inches long by the time they’re done.

After the caterpillar attaches itself to a stem or twig, it hangs from a silk material head down, then sheds its outer skin layer and transforms into the pupa or chrysalis. Metamorphosis takes place within the pupa and about two weeks later the butterfly emerges.

Butterflies are considered fragile, yet the monarchs travel between 1,200 and 2,800 miles or more from start to finish. This butterfly puzzle becomes even tougher when you learn the monarch migrating south in the fall is the great-great-grandchild of the butterflies who traveled north in the spring.

Monarchs are common in Iowa. The butterfly is orange and black and its colorful, distinctive markings make it one of the most identifiable butterflies in Iowa.

A monarch’s bright colors are a warning to predators because this butterfly is highly toxic. Eating just one can make a bird sick.

The monarchs have to head south because the winters are too cold in the places where they reproduce; and, they can’t handle heavy snowfall or the lack of plants for their larval caterpillar stage.

Centuries ago, scientists named the monarch “Danaus plexippus,” a Greek name that means “sleepy transformation.” That name refers to the butterfly’s ability to hibernate and transform.

The scientists chose the name because of the Greek myth of Danaus, a Libyan king. His daughters fled to Greece to avoid marrying their cousins and the scientists likened the long journey of the monarch to the flight of the king’s daughters.

The monarch butterfly has another connection to royalty, according to Internet sources. The butterfly’s bright orange colors allegedly reminded prompted early American settlers of William of Orange, one of the English kings. This connection is even more obvious in Canada, where the monarch butterfly is called a “King Billy.”

For information about tagging butterflies or other upcoming conservation programs, contact Wittrock at (641) 682-3091. Nature Center hours are 8 a.m.-4:30 p.m. Monday through Friday and the park is open 6:30 a.m.-10:30 p.m. daily.