ReachExtra
– Martin serrano
It is the queen. It is able to travel up to 120 kilometres a day, navigating via the light of day.
It’s the biggest butterfly, ten centimetres and the one that lives the longest of all, up to nine months. When it migrates, it flies so high, more than two kilometres up in the sky, when all of the others do it by flying a lot closer to the ground. The Monarch butterfly reigns in Castellar with its beautiful colours, on the banks of the river Guadarranque.
An extensive report from the University of Córdoba occupies a preferential spot on the desk of the mayor at the Town Hall.
Juan Casanova proudly showed a report containing all different types of scientific explanations produced by the group of experts from the research team of the Chair of Ecology in his municipality. In their studies, researchers show that the Monarch butterfly, which originates from the United States of America, makes a long journey when it migrates to Mexico.
It can also reach places during its migration as far across the Atlantic, such as the Canary Islands, Azores, Madeira and Cadiz and more specifically Castellar, where there is the largest colony of this beautiful lepidoptera in Europe.
During the winter the Monarch, on its journey from the United States to Mexico, will fly over two thousand metres above ground level. Thus, many of them are surprised by storms whose winds blow them over to Europe. When they arrive in England or along the northern European peninsula, they end up dying, but in Castellar, they have found a place to thrive, with a warm climate and the plants they need to survive.
Casanova, a confessed lover of nature and hiking, accompanies Professors Juan Fernández Haeger and Diego Jordano Barbudo along the banks of the river in search of the butterfly that has been linked to this habitat and capable of supporting its biological cycle. It is here that the larvae of the Monarch butterfly feeds on the asclepias (Tropical Milkweed), a type of plant that is called locally the “Spanish flag” because the flowers have yellow, red and some orange colours on their leaves.
The Monarch detects the plant by its sense of smell from afar. We as humans do not have such abilities. The female lays her eggs on the leaves and then the caterpillars hatch and begin to dine on them. Milkweed is poisonous. Only the Monarch butterfly and some other insects such as certain aphids can feed on it. The toxins, which pass to the Caterpillar and so to the butterfly, cannot be eaten by birds and other animals as it will cause their death by cardiac arrest.
The Monarch has conquered the mayor´s heart. A butterfly that is capable of withstanding the variables of time better than any other, completing a lifecycle of nine months, up to 12 times longer than all of its counterparts, it deserves recognition, and on returning to the Mayor´s office, they thought that such heroism should be celebrated and devised the “Monarch Nature Trail”. One more tourist attraction in the varied natural wonders of this municipality.
Following the great butterfly
The Monarch butterfly is path runs through Los Alcornocales Natural Park in an unspoiled area. It is situated 5.5 kilometres from Los Cuarteles, where you can find the Venta La Cantina up to Venta La Jarandilla.
The path runs along the bank of the river Guadarranque which has a great natural value, and trees such as Alder, Ash, Gall Oak and large White Poplar grow in abundance.
The path ends where the bridge of La Jarandilla begins.
