Monarch butterfly; photo by U. S. Fish and Wildlife Service / Northeast Region on Flickr (use permitted with attribution).
Official State Insect of Illinois
Illinois designated the iconic monarch butterfly as the official state insect in 1975, the result of lobbying by Illinois schoolchildren (a third grader from Decatur was the first to suggest the monarch as state insect). All State Insects
Monarch Butterfly Facts
Both the caterpillar and adult monarch butterfly are brilliant in color as a warning to predators - the monarch ingests toxins from the milkweed plant which are poisonous. Monarch butterfly populationss are declining due to loss of habitat; listed as NF (near threatened) by the World Wildlife Fund.
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