Vicki Jauron, Babylon and Beyond Photography

Each year, there are four generations of monarch butterflies that take part in the migration north in the spring and summer, then south again in the fall. Each generation takes a leg of the journey and, before dying, lays eggs on local milkweed plants. Then, offspring pick up where their parents left off. The life cycle of a monarch is only about four weeks—except for the last generation of the year. That one is special.

In late summer, shortening days and aging milkweed cue something incredible in the biology of monarchs. If it happened in humans, it would be the stuff of superhero comic books. Monarchs born in this “super” generation, the fourth and last of the year, live eight times longer than their parents, grandparents, and great-grandpa

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