Relationship With Humans
The monarch is the state insect of Alabama, Idaho, Illinois, Minnesota, Texas, and the state butterfly of Vermont and West Virginia. It was nominated in 1990 as the national insect of the United States of America, along with the honeybee (Apis mellifera), but the legislation did not pass.
Many people like to attract monarchs by growing a butterfly garden with a specific milkweed species. Others enjoy raising them for pleasure or for educational purposes. For migrating flocks, sanctuaries have been created at favorite wintering locations, and these migrations can generate significant tourism revenue.
Many schools also enjoy growing and attending to monarch butterflies, starting with the caterpillar form. When the butterflies reach adulthood, they are then released into the wild.
Some organizations, such as the Cape May Bird Observatory, have monarch identification tagging programs. Plastic stickers are placed on the wing of the insect with identification information. Tracking information is used to study their migration patterns, including how far and where they fly.
The main villain on The Venture Bros. (a cartoon on the Adult Swim block of Cartoon Network) takes his name, costume and overall lifestyle from monarch butterflies.
Read more about this topic: Monarch Butterfly
Famous quotes containing the words relationship with, relationship and/or humans:
“When a mother quarrels with a daughter, she has a double dose of unhappiness—hers from the conflict, and empathy with her daughter’s from the conflict with her. Throughout her life a mother retains this special need to maintain a good relationship with her daughter.”
—Terri Apter (20th century)
“Christianity as an organized religion has not always had a harmonious relationship with the family. Unlike Judaism, it kept almost no rituals that took place in private homes. The esteem that monasticism and priestly celibacy enjoyed implied a denigration of marriage and parenthood.”
—Beatrice Gottlieb, U.S. historian. The Family in the Western World from the Black Death to the Industrial Age, ch. 12, Oxford University Press (1993)
“The worst condition of humans is when they lose knowledge and control of themselves.”
—Michel de Montaigne (1533–1592)