Which came first, the butterfly or the egg?

By Jon Bodell - Jul 19, 2016 | 0 comments

A lot of the butterflies liked to hang out right where the tent transitioned from opaque to screen. Maybe they like the breeze but hate the sunlight? (JON BODELL / Insider staff)

The butterflies live in this tent in front of the garden center building at Cole Gardens. (JON BODELL / Insider staff)

A female hangs out high in the tent. (JON BODELL / Insider staff)

This monarch is a male. You can tell by those dark spots near the bottom of the wing (one is pointed out in the photo). These spots are essentially the butterfly’s, well, manhood. (JON BODELL / Insider staff)

Cole points out some fine specimens. (JON BODELL / Insider staff)

Cole Gardens owner Charlie Cole catches a monarch butterfly. Those guys look cool, but they’re not terribly fast. (JON BODELL / Insider staff)

JON BODELL / Insider staff—

The circle of life is on display at Cole Gardens in the form of monarch butterflies.

The garden center recently acquired 12 monarchs – eight females and four males – which will lay eggs (each butterfly can lay up to 700 eggs) from Florida. Once the new generation is born and ready to go, owner Charlie Cole will release them all on the Cole Gardens property.

They’ll hang around the property for a few days performing critical pollination duties, and then they’ll head south. Way south. Like Mexico.

That’s right, these fluttery creatures migrate just like birds. Their lifespan is so short that they die on their way back north. So sad, but such is the life of a monarch butterfly.

The butterflies are hanging out in a tent right in front of the garden center building, so go have a look.