Monarch butterflies are known worldwide for their majestic beauty. As any butterfly enthusiast knows, the host plant for all monarch butterflies are plants that belong to the Milkweed family (Asclepiadaceae). In Northern Thailand, I came across three Thai monarch butterfly caterpillars feasting on Blood Flower (Asclepias curassavica), which is indigenous to Central America but has been introduced throughout the tropics.

In Thailand, there are several native Milkweed species including Giant Indian Milkweed (Calotropis gigantea), Oxystelma esculentum, Tonkin Jasmine(Telosma minor) , Tylophora indica and Hoya kerrii, of which the latter four are climbers.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, August 9th, 2006 at 8:32 am and is filed under Thailand, nature, travel. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.