Monday, May 18, 2015

THE MONARCH BUTTERFLY


The Monarch Butterfly...

So beautiful...

The US Fish and Wildlife guys have
added "Danaus" (scientific name for the Monarch), to the list of endangered species.

Monarch Butterflies are known for their annual 3000 mile migration  through Canada, the United States, and Mexico. Many of us grew up as they appeared in our yards, and admired them, and tried to capture one or two.

Alas, herbicides that kill "milkweed" -- a favorite food for the butterfly -- have devastated the Monarch's sole source of nourishment.

Ahh...  Poor us ...  It's one more lovely-living-thing that can no longer survive in the changing world.

Mourn it? Wish there was a solution? Will being an Endangered Species help?

Are Monarchs like the disappearing Honey Bees that the Bible, Albert Einstein, and Pulitzer Prize winning Harvard biologist, E. O Wilson, say -- are needed on our earth to keep crops flourishing and plant life alive on our lands.

Golly, we need Monarchs to sustain the image of Muhammad Ali's "Float like a butterfly, sting like a bee," and Keat's words -- "A thing of beauty, a joy forever."

We want forever, we need forever, to forever remain beautiful for our children.



1 comment:

Dustspeck said...

I can still remember chasing one for a long time in a field of high growing dandelions and catching it and letting it go, circa 1967. Moths are pretty important too. I have a bunch of moth memories too. Nature will survive anything our species can dish out. It will rebound. Have faith that we are as temporary as any other life form that's ever existed. Like Lucile used to recite, "We are here today and gone tomorrow; no time for grief, no time for sorrow. The time we live is only borrowed, fore we are here today and gone tomorrow."