The caterpillar will slowly turn into a gloriously beautiful jade green chrysalis with golden dots lined up on one surface Amazingly, this is the only real gold produced by any creature. Inside the chrysalis the caterpillar will dissolve into a formless kind of living soup, this material gradually rearranges itself in a process known as metamorphosis. After 10 to 15 days, the green chrysalis turns dark and splits open. Out comes an adult butterfly with crumpled wings and a fat fluid filled body. The adult may spend as long as an hour pumping body fluid into the expanding wings and letting them harden before it is ready to take flight and find a mate, to start the process all over again. No one knows exactly why the butterflies choose the places to roost that they do. Certainly one factor is the leaf design. Trees with long thin leaves are chosen, notably those of the Eucalyptus and Monterey Pine. As many as 50 to 75 thousand butterflies will gather in the trees near Pismo Beach starting in early October. One will light on a leaf and the next one will land over the first one so that the second one's wings drape down over the first butterfly. This layering or "shingling" effect will be repeated until the entire leaf is filled with a bouquet of orange and black color. There are several theories as to why this occurs. The most popular is that the stacking adds weight to the leaf reducing its swing in the wind and thus preventing the butterflies from being knocked off. Another is that the stacking adds warmth to the insects which is vital to their survival. At 55 degrees the monarch loses its ability to fly. Below 40 it is unable to move at all. These temperatures are somewhat common at night in Pismo Beach. Under these conditions, being dislodged from a leaf means almost certain death on the ground below. For, although the alkaline taste of the butterfly discourages most predators, the field mice devour them in style. Consequently you will see owls in the trees wherever the Monarchs are. They are awaiting the arrival of these little rodents to serve as their midnight snack. When the sun is shining, these beautiful creatures spread their wings, and soak up the sun's heat, raising their body temperature to as high as a 100 degrees. With this they are off darting here and there collecting nectar and finding that perfect mate. The life expectancy of a Monarch butterfly is only about 6 weeks for those hatched from early spring to late fall. Strangely enough the last hatching before the necessary milkweed dies out for the winter, can live anywhere from 6 to 9 months. Long enough for the milkweed to return and the cycle to start again. On weekends the park provides guides and lecturers who take groups around to the various trees giving explanations on what is happening at the time. We walked with Laddie Gorski that day and found it a most intriguing afternoon. The sight of so much moving color in such a confined space is a spectacle one should not miss. I put it high on my "must see" list for southern California.

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