Butterfly Gets Lift From Arizona Legislator

A proposal to name the two-tailed swallowtail as Arizona’s state butterfly has drawn grimaces, groans and giggles from many state lawmakers, but one senator is making an all-out push for the yellow and black bug.

“I hope to be the wind beneath its wings,” proclaimed Democratic state Sen. Herb Guenther of Tacna, a small town in southwestern Arizona near Yuma.

Throughout his days at the Capitol, Guenther is rarely found without some butterfly item. His coffee mug is painted with butterflies. His pen has a butterfly attached to the end. A butterfly balloon floats above his desk. Recently he distributed silk butterflies to every senator by sticking them on their Senate floor microphones.

The proposed legislation was spearheaded by schoolchildren and garden clubs across the state. They picked the two-tailed swallowtail, known by the scientific name Papilionidae papilio multicaudata, to represent Arizona in the insect world.

It is a yellow butterfly with black markings and small blue dots along one edge of its wings. It ranges throughout western North America, from British Columbia to central Mexico.

The bill has already passed the House. It has been assigned to three committees in the Senate, which would have to endorse the bill before it could reach a vote of the full Senate and a final decision by Gov. Jane Hull.

If it becomes the state’s butterfly, the two-tailed swallowtail would join a host of other official Arizona symbols, including the cactus wren, bola tie, ridgenose rattlesnake and Arizona tree frog.

Guenther rarely misses an opportunity to plug the butterfly proposal.

During a recent hearing by the Senate Natural Resources Committee, Guenther stopped Russell Smolden, a spokesman for a Phoenix-area utility, at the end of his testimony on municipal liability in parks to ask, “How are you on the butterfly?”

“I’m with you all the way,” Smolden assured him.

State of Arizona: https://www.state.az.us/