Subject: [Tweeters] More on Painted Ladies
Date: Apr 11 13:48:39 2005
From: Alice Swan - aswan at rockisland.com


Dear Tweets,
I forgot the most recent segment of the Lady news.
Alice

> Date: April 7, 2005 9:41:19 AM PDT
> To: newstips at ucdavis.edu, getnews at ucdavis.edu

> BUTTERFLY MIGRATION COULD BE LARGEST KNOWN
>
> Millions of painted lady butterflies that fluttered into California's
> Central Valley in the last week of March could be just the advance
> guard of one of the largest migrations of the species on record, said
> Arthur Shapiro, a professor and expert on butterflies at UC Davis.
>
> "This may be the biggest migration of modern times," Shapiro said.
>
> Shapiro said he is getting reports of "billions" of butterflies
> around Trona, near Death Valley, and in the San Fernando Valley. More
> waves of butterflies are likely to appear in central California over
> the next few weeks as the insects take wing.
>
> Painted lady butterflies, known by the scientific name Vanessa
> cardui, spend the winter in the desert. As caterpillars turn into
> adults in the spring, they migrate north in search of fresh food and
> breeding grounds, powered by a supply of yellow fat they have built
> up over the winter.
>
> Painted ladies migrate every year, but usually less conspicuously and
> in far fewer numbers. This year, however, exceptionally high winter
> rainfall in southern California has created a bumper crop of plants
> for the caterpillars to eat, fuelling a population boom, Shapiro said.
>
> The butterflies take about three days to reach the Central Valley,
> and the current generation will fly as far as southern Oregon. Their
> offspring will fly on to reach British Columbia by summer, before
> heading south again in the fall.
>
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