Question About Monarch Behaviour

[wayupnorthstars]

Hello

I had a Monarch Butterfly in my yard who had been hit by a car. We tried to help it survive as long as possible, until we came to the belief that it was not going to last much longer.

We gently placed it below a tree to see how it does.

A short while later, another Monarch came flying around the yard, back and forth, back and forth , until finally it landed right beside the one that was hurt.

My curiosity got the best of me, so I rushed over to see what it was going to do.

After a few minutes, the monarch turned towards the face of the injured one, and placed a leg on top of its face and held it there for a few minutes.

It later went to the back of it, and began to drop some sort of liquid from its back end. It did this continuously in intervals and would not stop. I figured it may be marking the area, or possibly it was having some sort of its own kind of crying funeral for the other.

Anyways, it stayed there and dropped this liquid for about 15 minutes. After that , it flew away. I went to check up on the injured one on the ground, and it's time had sadly come.

I'm still stumped by the whole procedure. Anyone know what the other Monarch was doing? It would be interesting to find out.

[psi_chemie]

That's very interesting. Did you noticed the sexes? Maybe it had something to do with that. I've seen butterflies do some pretty crazy things. I always wonder if it was some random event or was I witnessing some new type of behaviour for the species.

[harpo787]

Very interesting! The only thing I can logically come to is that the one that was hit was a female and the "mourner" was a male simply trying to impregnate the female. Why he'd impregnate both ends, I have no idea.

Hopefully one of the VERY knowledgable moderators will stop by soon to explain this rather unique(?) phenomenon!

[wayupnorthstars]

No, sadly I didn't even think to see if they were opposites. Yes, I do hope someone will possibly have a good explanation of what it was doing.

Curiosity still has the best of me.