A rare white monarch butterfly was spotted in the spot where an orange butterfly was eaten by a spider.
Why This Rare White Monarch Butterfly Sighting Is Getting Scientists to Believe in Ghosts
Spooky season is in full swing over in Missouri.
A biologist recently spotted and photographed a super rare white monarch butterfly in the exact same spot where she previously saw a more common orange monarch butterfly being eaten by a whitebanded crab spider (fair warning, that particular picture is pretty gruesome).
The Missouri Department of Conservation posted stunning photos of this unlikely series of events on Facebook, titling it, "American Ghost Story: The Monarch's Return."
They wrote, "Could it be the spirit of the fallen Monarch flying back for a visit? Or just nature showing us how full of surprises it can be? Either way, a beautiful, and spooky, nature sighting!"
White monarch butterflies are incredibly rare and the circumstances of this sighting made it extra special.
Amanda Gehin, assistant natural history biologist at MDP, was the scientist who spotted the two butterflies and photographed them.
"I came across the white monarch when I was spreading native milkweed seeds in the monarch waystation in my yard," Gehin told The Kansas City Star. "I did a double take when I noticed the incredible creature nectaring on New England aster, a native late-season bloomer. I have been wondering if it would have been more likely to be struck by lightning."
Biologist Amanda Gehin photographed a monarch butterfly being predated by a spider.
To give you an idea of just how rare the white monarch truly is (if Gehin's colorful metaphor didn't already do it for you), back in 2015, Orley "Chip" Taylor, director of Kansas University’s Monarch Watch, put it this way while speaking to Lawrence Journal-World: "I’ve been doing this since I was 6 or 7 and I’ve never seen a white monarch. They are so rare we only hear of one to two reported every other year among the tens of thousands of people who rear butterflies."
The white monarch butterfly is incredibly rare in the wild, except in Hawaii.
Gehin actually reached out to Taylor after her incredible sighting and he pointed out that white monarch butterflies are typically seen with maroon eyes. Since Gehin's butterfly had black eyes, it was an even rarer "apparition" than she might have first thought.
"Monarchs are fascinating in so many ways, both culturally and scientifically, and the sighting has offered me a brand-new learning experience," Gehin said.
The white monarch butterfly showed in biologist Amanda Gehin's yard in Missouri.
White monarch butterfly sightings are extremely rare — except in Hawaii, where a couple of factors may help to protect them from predators.
Though rare, sightings have been reported in Australia, New Zealand, Indonesia and the continental United States, according to MonarchWatch.org.