- Monarch Butterfly
Monarch butterflies are found all over the United States, and even down into South America and the Caribbean.
The beautiful orange and black large butterfly is what most of us visualize when thinking of the dainty creatures.
Monarch butterflies lay their eggs on the milkweed plant, on which the young feed after hatching.
Ingesting the toxic sap of the milkweed, they themselves become toxic; even carrying the toxicity throughout their wings into adulthood.
When a predator goes to eat the butterfly they are bothered by the bad taste of the toxin, and leave the majestic insect to go about its business.
Getting the toxin in your mouth can give a human an upset stomach, or even heart trouble if a lot of the cardiac glycosides in the toxin are ingested.
You may be thinking that kids don’t eat butterflies, but any mom knows children love to put all sorts of strange things into their mouth. Not to mention, just going to eat lunch without the proper hand washing.