butterfly rearing and release question

[Paul Cherubini]

Soowon Cho wrote:

> 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? 

None. Hans Schnauber, the organizer of the "National Butterfly Release"
released 1000 Painted Ladies instead of 10,000 monarchs
as originally planned. He bought these for about $1500.00 from Insect
Lore in Shafter, California.

> 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?

Last summer 4000 monarchs were released at a shopping mall grand opening
in Atlanta, Georgia. They were raised by David Bohlken in Minnesota and he
wholesaled them to Bethany Homeyer in south Texas. Bethany packed the butterflies up
in a couple suitcases and flew them to Atlanta and made all the release arrangements.
Monarchs are expensive and I would imagine the mall had to pay in the
neighborhood of $4-5 per butterfly so this release may have cost them roughly 
$16,000-$20,000. This is still a low price considering monarchs normally
retail for $7-$10 each.

Butterfly farmers now have their own industry association called the 
International Butterfly Breeders Association (IBBA) http://www.butterflybreeders.org/
It costs $100.00 to join. And just like those traveling real estate investment seminars, 
there are individuals who travel the country offering a $195.00 butterfly raising seminar.
http://butterflywebsite.com/series.htm. 

> 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?

Monarchs tend to fly away quickly. There are 640 acres in one square mile and 9600
acres in 15 square miles. So if someone released 9,600 monarchs in one spot and the 
butterflies dispersed over 15 square miles in a few days's time, that
would mean there would be a butterfly density of only one monarch per acre 
after two days. Tiger Swallowtails are rarely used in butterfly releases because they are
too fragile to ship overnight.

Paul Cherubini, Placerville, Calif.