butterfly rearing and release question

[Soowon Cho]

Dear members,

Does anyone know how many monarch butterflies were released on the
Independence day ceremony a couple of years ago, and how much did it
cost?  If it was an event prepared for a special ceremony, was it prepared
by one butterfly farm or more and how long did it take to be prepared?

I simply assume that it was an event at one place such as inside a
football stadium.  My wondering is that do Monarchs fly away after all the
butterflies, say ten thousand butterflies, are released at the same
time.  I guess there are some butterflies who do not fly up and away from
the ground and simply stay there and some others may fly away from the
stadium.  Do you know if the Monarchs fly away quickly?  How about a tiger
swallowtail?

Sincerely,

Soowon Cho

U. C. Berkeley
ESPM-Insect Biol.
201 Wellman Hall
Berkeley, CA 94720-3112

soowon at nature.berkeley.edu
http://www.cnr.berkeley.edu/~soowon/welcome.html