1. Swan plants = food Most customers buy swan plants for food for caterpillars or they plant them so that female Monarchs will lay eggs on them. Female Monarchs can smell a swan plant from 2 kilometres away! It’s important that swan plants are NOT sprayed to remove aphids and/or caterpillars – or if they are, they are removed from sale. People who buy swan plants that have been sprayed can be very upset when caterpillars start to die – and this is very bad for customer relations.

2. Egg Ovum Adult Imago Monarch metamorphosis or life cycle Pupa Chrysalis Caterpillar Larva

3. Male and female Monarch Males have a black spot (or scent pouch) on each hindwing The veins on the wings of a female are broader than a male’s

4. Interesting immigrants! Monarchs come from North America and ‘flew/blew’ here in the 1840s The swan plant comes from Africa – and probably arrived here as a ‘stowaway’ in lifesavers, pillows etc. The silk is used by native Africans as a filler for soft furnishings… which may well have been dumped here when they outlived their useful life.

5. Swan plant is poisonous Temporary blindness Skin allergies Be careful! Bitter taste Birds learn not to eat them except for the shining cuckoo More detailed information on www.monarch.org.nz

6. Tips to tell customers Observe, don’t touch Chemicals can harm! These also include fly spray, sun screen, hand cream, flea collars – not ‘just pesticides’ Plants may have different levels of toxicity : soil structure, type of milkweed, humidity etc… This can also affect caterpillars. Let caterpillars transfer themselves by putting the new plant next to the plant which is devoid of leaves.