The Monarchs tend to be with us through the winter. The ones in central to southern Florida don't migrate. At the museum, we have a heat lamp in the flight cage so we don't really have mass casualties and they still reproduce as we have the host plants in there with them. As for the wild - there are really only a few weeks around late January to early February that you tend not to see any butterflies. Not all butterflies migrate like most of the Monarchs, but they do spread and retract their populations through the seasons. For example, two years ago we had a few really bad freezes. I did not see a Zebra Longwing for over a year after that. But they have slowly crept northward again and this year there's just a ton of them! Also, the Swallowtails spend the winter in the chrysalis so they emerge in the spring and then start mating and laying eggs. So I guess to summarize, lots of butterflies just stay in their chrysalis until the weather is warm enough. Others stay south of here and work their way north as the weather warms up. Hope that helps!
