Here we see one of the last royal female insects on one of the last royal female flowers. That’s a female monarch (i.e., queen) butterfly trying to find nectar in a Queen (i.e., monarch) Anne lace flowerhead yesterday when the temperature was 55° (F).
Judging from her awkward flight, I don’t think that this beauty is part of the monarch migrating “super generation” that has the special genes to live longer and be stronger than the year’s prior generations. Those pilgrims left for Mexico in September, I believe. I think this butterfly was born in Maine this year and will die here, perhaps before all the royal lace does.
(Images taken in Brooklin, Maine, on October 11, 2025.)