Some consider the monarch butterfly the king of all butterflies. The monarch butterfly, like all butterflies, starts off as a caterpillar. Its average lifespan in the wild is up to eight months. They are mainly know for the massive migrations that happens over several generations. It brings extensive amounts of monarch butterflies to California and Mexico. The monarch butterfly has to have very strong muscles in order to be able to fly over thousands of miles. The Danaus Plexippus's muscle system is distributed into three main sections, the head, thorax, and abdomen. The head contains the proboscis, which sucks nectar out of flowers. Inside the thorax, there are very powerful muscles. The expansion and contraction of the muscles causes the rise and fall of the monarch's wings. It also contains the leg muscles. The abdomen allows flexibility and stablility during flight.
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