13 April 2019

The "superbloom" is producing a butterfly bloom


The extraordinary "superbloom" of wildflowers in California this spring is triggering an explosive growth in the local population of Painted Lady butterflies.
By the millions, the butterflies are fluttering through Southern California, feasting on a proliferation of herbaceous plants like cheeseweed and hollyhock.

It’s part of their normal movement north from the dry deserts of Mexico to the lush Cascade Range in the Pacific Northwest. But the population is outsized this year, the latest colorful natural phenomenon produced by winter’s abundant rainfall and a cooler February that has kept the plants from drying out...

Doug Yanega, senior museum scientist at UC Riverside’s Entomology Research Museum, said he and his colleagues spent their lunch break today counting butterflies. 

“We were seeing at least 100 of them a minute,” he says. “That’s just looking out one window. We’re talking about a population in the millions, easily no question.”  In the deserts outside of Southern California, Yanega says there are caterpillars “everywhere.”..
Their flight north is typically made up of multiple generations, with a butterfly going a certain distance, then laying eggs. Its brood will hatch and continue north. That’s similar to the famed migration of monarch butterflies, which are commonly mistaken for painted ladies.

Brown says the movement of painted ladies isn’t as dramatic, but it is far more ubiquitous—painted ladies are found around the globe. “The migration is not only happening here in North America. It happens between Africa and Europe as well,” he says. “It really is a worldwide phenomenon.”..

These painted ladies are native—and that’s something to celebrate, says Yanega.

Photoessay of the life cycle at Painted Lady (Vanessa cardui).

Top photo from Wikipedia; the other two from my files.

7 comments:

  1. the PLs are so drab underneath, but so colorful on top. i wonder if there is some camouflage reason for that?

    and p.s., howdja get them to land on you finger?

    I-)

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. It's totally for camouflage. When stationary with wings folded up they become invisible on bark or the ground. Same with lots of others, including the blue morpho -

      https://www.google.com/search?hl=en&tbm=isch&source=hp&biw=1993&bih=1112&ei=BrmzXM73CJC6sgXF0qT4DA&q=blue+morpho+underside&oq=blue+morpho+under&gs_l=img.1.0.0j0i8i30.26.7077..8610...0.0..1.490.4049.25j5j0j1j2......0....1..gws-wiz-img.......35i39j0i24.5LFESnV80lI

      Delete
    2. The ones on my finger were ones that I raised; they are quite docile when they first eclose, especially when the wings haven't totally hardened. The other way is to have sweaty fingers (or lick your fingers) so they will linger to get the minerals.

      Delete
    3. thanks for both replies! the closest i have gotten is having a red admiral land on a sweaty finger tip, and i had my camera with me, so i do have a photo, somewhere.

      I-)

      Delete
  2. that video in that article of the PLs flying along the beach - https://twitter.com/loveheylola/status/1105246078201344000 - totally unreal!

    I-)

    ReplyDelete
  3. My only concern was during a drive along Hwy 5 in California, as tens of painted ladies smashed against my windshield. They fly erratically from low to the ground to higher than car height, and I just imagine millions of individuals not being able to complete the migration. I have cancelled all future trips for now, until the migration is over.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. What you've experienced is a manifestation of a common problem. I had problems trying to avoid tiger swallowtails up in northern Minnesota.

      One solution being pursued for the lack of food plants and nectar plants is to use the wide medians of interstate highways as areas for extensive flower plantings. You can imagine that that presents a two-edged sword.

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