Glowing Monarch

Danaus luminiscencia

Glowing Monarchs are milkweed butterflies with wingspans of 15 inches that have evolved a unique method to avoid predation from the plethora of aerial predators that call the skies of Skull Island home. The scales of the Glowing Monarch are covered with a species of bacteria that produces bioluminescence, this is obtained by pollinating and feeding upon certain plants that produce this bacteria in the Great Rift and other chasms across the island. When threatened Glowing Monarchs will disperse their scales in glowing clouds to disorientate predators, however if done in excess the butterfly will be grounded. Fortunately these scales can be regrown within a day. Glowing Monarchs begin their lives in the chasms that scar the surface of the island, the eggs are laid on the several species of bioluminescent plant, once hatched the caterpillars will begin to feed on their host plants until their cocoon. Within a week the butterfly emerges and spends its first two weeks in its imago stage pollinating its host plant species, after the two weeks the Glowing Monarchs will begin to migrate to the north side of the Island, there they can pollinate a different plant that acts as an aphrodisiac in butterflies, heavily increasing fertility in both sexes, which results in more eggs being produced after the flocks migrate back to their birth chasms. The average lifespan of an imago Glowing Monarch is five months.

Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Arthropoda
Class: Insecta
Order: Lepidoptera
Family: Nymphalidae
Genus: Danaus
Species: D. luminiscencia