Back Cover

What Is It

Our photographers have been busy exploring the intricacies of the Missouri outdoors. See if you can guess this month’s natural wonder. The answer is revealed on the inside of this back cover.

Monarch butterfly

On the back cover and right is a monarch butterfly by Noppadol Paothong. Monarchs are found in a variety of habitats: fields and grasslands, roadsides and urban and suburban plantings. They are famous for their annual migration to overwinter in Mexico. Missourians are encouraged to plant milkweeds. Monarchs lay their eggs on the underside of the milkweed leaves. The caterpillars eat the plant and the adults eat the nectar from flowers. Track the monarchs’ migration at learner.org/jnorth/monarch.