The Coolidge examiner., 1938-01-27

I'LL MS tiIG W4IINGIs dllJONSil lIO4N III
uals have been seen in Toronto as
late as the beginning Of November.
The southward-fiying swarmS are
often very conspicuous, as they may
consist Of tens Of thousands Of but
terfiies flying up to three hundred
feet or more in the air, and when
they settle for the night they may
actually seem TO change the color
of the vegetation by their numbers.
Hamilton, writing Of a swarm in
New Jersey in 1885, said: The mu-
titudes of this butterfly that assem-
bled here in September are past be-
lief. Millions is but feebly express
sive. Miles Of them is no exag-
geration."
Ellzey, in 1888. describing flight
that he saw in Maryland, wrote:
The whole heaven was swarming
with butterflies. There were an in
Vulnerable multitude Of them at all
heights, from say 100 feet to a
height beyond the range Of vision
except by the aid OF glass. They
were flying due southwest in the
face of a stiff breeze"
Shannon, in 1916, suggested that
this butterfly used definite fight
routes on its way south, but the
small number Of records still avail
able makes it doubtful if his con-
clusion is justified.
Painted Lady Also Travels.
Another of the worlds greatest
migrant butterflies. more widely
distributed but less completely un-
derstood than the Monarch. is the
Painted Lady.
In North America this butterfly is
practically never seen in the winter
in any stage (although actually one
was recorded in Colorado on Janu-
ary l, 1850. In the spring in some
years countless millions Of Painted
Ladies pour into southern Califor-
MIA and probably also into Arizona.
New Mexico or beyond.
One such fight, seen by scien-
tist in April, 1924, was at least 40
miles wide and was passing for
three days at speed Of about six
miles an hour. The scientist eSti-
mated about 300 butterflies per
acre, or a total of about three thou
sand million in the whole fight.
There are records of similar great
invasions in 1901. 1914, 1920, 1924.
1926, and 1881, but in other years
scarcely any butterflies are seen.
The Painted Ladies spread north
ward and eastward over the United
States and southern Canada, and in
1881 they were so abundant in some
of the North Central and Northeast
ern states that farmers rejoiced at
the wholesale destruction of their
thistles and asked the Department
of Agriculture if these valuable in
sects could not be encouraged They
are not everywhere SO popular. how
ever.
We have to admit that nothing is
yet known about what happens to
the offspring of these immigrants,
except that they disappear. The
most natural explanation would be
that they return to the South in the
| autumn, as do the Monarchs, but
there is little evidence to support
this belief.
Originate in North Africa.
The Painted Lady makes even
more definite flights in Europe and
North Africa. Swarms appear to
originate somewhere just south or
north of the North African desert
belt in the early spring. They come
into the coastal areas of North
Africa from the south about April,
cross the Mediterranean (some-
times in hundreds of thousands),
and pass more or less northward
through Europe. They reach Eng
land about the end of May or the
beginning of June, and occasionally
carry on as far as Iceland, where
they have been recorded about six
times in the last sixty years.
Farther east they spread north
ward through the Caucasus and on
into Russia, where they have been
recorded almost as far north as the
Arctic circle.
Except in the extreme north, the
immigrants lay eggs which hatch
and grow TO be adults, and there
are some records Of autumn flights
which are evidently composed OF
the offspring of the spring migrants;
| but, as in North America, the evi.
dence is insufficient at present tc
prove return to he south. If such
a return fight does take place, it is
| probable that the insects move in.
dividually Gas in the spring fight OF
the Monarch and not gregariously
The only known record of the start
of a fight is an observation made
many years ago in the Sudan, when
a naturalist in March, 1869, saw
thousands of chrysalides Of the
| Painted Lady hatch Simultaneous.
and the resulting butterflies fly off II
a mass