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:
“Every man is in a state of conflict, owing to his attempt to reconcile himself and his relationship with life to his conception of harmony. This conflict makes his soul a battlefield, where the forces that wish this reconciliation fight those that do not and reject the alternative solutions they offer. Works of art are attempts to fight out this conflict in the imaginative world.”
—Rebecca West (1892–1983)
“From infancy, a growing girl creates a tapestry of ever-deepening and ever- enlarging relationships, with her self at the center. . . . The feminine personality comes to define itself within relationship and connection, where growth includes greater and greater complexities of interaction.”
—Jeanne Elium (20th century)
“The land is the host and humans merely guests.”
—Chinese proverb.