Monarch Butterfly
Danaus plexippus
Status: Endangered. There are two migration populations: eastern and western. As of 2022, the western population was counted at less than 2000. The eastern population is larger, however it is also declining, and most of the milkweed habitat is gone. To help counter this, conservation efforts emphasize the importance to residential gardeners to plant native plants, particularly species that monarchs require for nectar, and milkweed that they require for their larval stage.
The Mazahuas people of Mexico call monarchs "daughters of the sun" for the brilliant color of their wings, and because the arrival of the monarch migration meant the arrival of the Spring sun. They were revered, and used as living tribute, and jewelry and adornments.
Several indigenous legends say that monarch butterflies are the souls of children who have died, and they are welcomed back in the course of the monarch's migration path to arrive in the boughs of the trees in Mexico on the Day of the Dead.
The Aztec death goddess Itzpapalotl, whose name meant "Obsidian Butterfly", ruled over Tamoanchan, the land where women and children who did not survive childbirth went to. She was also patron to warriors.
References:
"Daughters of the Sun". USDA educational document.
https://www.fs.usda.gov/wildflowers/pollinators/Monarch_Butterfly/documents/royal_mail/Daughters_of_the_Sun.pdf
"Itzpapalotl". Telleriano-Remensis Codex, folio 18 recto, MS Mexicain 385, Gallica digital collection
https://gallica.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/btv1b8458267s/f62.item.zoom
Gingerich, Willard. "Three Nahuatl Hymns on the Mother Archetype: An Interpretive Commentary". Mexican Studies/Estudios Mexicanos Vol 4 No 2 (Summer 1988). University of California Press. https://doi.org/10.2307/1051822