Monarch butterflies flying in space

This video is from when the monarchs on the ISS were still caterpillars.

From Space.com in the USA:

The first-ever Monarch butterflies in space have taken flight on the international space station to the delight of astronauts aboard. …

The Monarch butterflies are the first ever sent to space. They began emerging just days after several Painted Lady butterflies began emerging from their own cocoons in a separate enclosure.

The Monarch and Painted Lady butterflies arrived at the station as catepillars last month on the space shuttle Atlantis as part of an educational experiment. And while butterfly larvae have been sent to space before, the colorful insects on the space station now are the first to successfully go through all phases of their development — from larva to pupa to adult butterfly — in orbit. …

At least one difference between space Monarch butterflies and their terrestrial counterparts has already been revealed. On Earth, the wings of a newly-emerged Monarch butterfly can take anywhere between three and five minutes to dry. But aboard the space station, it took about 15 minutes. …

Because of the cramped quarters, the Monarch butterflies — which began emerging Nov. 30 — were only expected to live about four days, instead of the two weeks they would survive on Earth, NASA officials said. The space Painted Lady butterflies, meanwhile, are expected to live about a week, about half what they would on Earth.

The butterflies are not the first critters to live among the human crew of the International Space Station. Two orb weaving spiders managed to spin wild webs in weightlessness last year, with astronauts checking in on them from time to time.

Monarch Butterflies Reveal a Novel Way in Which Animals Sense Earth’s Magnetic Field: here.

Monarch butterfly numbers hit all time low: here.

Monarch butterfly crash: due to U.S. farms & suburbs, not just Mexican Habitat loss: here.

Monarch butterflies use medicinal plants to treat offspring for disease: study: here.

Thousands of monarch butterflies to arrive at St Marks Refuge, FL, in Oct. Experience monarch magic on Oct 23: here.

Fears grow for future of Britain’s rarest butterflies: here.

June 2011. The Forestry Commission has linked up with Butterfly Conservation to lure one of Yorkshire’s rarest butterflies back to a former haunt. The striking yellow and brown flecked Duke of Burgundy (Hamearis lucina) survives at only a handful of places in the north: here.

Dutch butterflies, 19 April 2010: here.

The end of the US space shuttle program: here.