A swarm of colorful butterflies filled the sky in California

Some would come in terror from a swarm of millions of insects, with the exception that it is a beautiful butterfly called replicae. They filled the skies of southern California, heading North for the migration. The butterflies live in warmer areas, but migrate in the spring and sometimes in autumn.

"The migration of painted ladies is not uncommon, but rather a centuries-old tradition. In some years the figures of their number are not as pronounced as this year", — said the President of Butterfly Rescue International, lepidopterist Rick Mikula.

It is known that painted ladies every year are traveling from the deserts of southern California to the North-West Pacific ocean. In California they usually fly from the North to North-West.

"A huge number of them this year, perhaps due to California rains, which increase the lifetime of the plant in winter conditions," said Mikula.

Rains in the desert, where the North American painted ladies lay their eggs, and caused a large number this year. Heavy rain has led to flowering plants, and butterflies-painted ladies got a lot of food.

"The more plants, the more caterpillars that eventually become butterflies. I was lucky enough to witness the greatest mass migrations in decades," said Mikula.

Butterflies-painted ladies are found on all continents except Antarctica and South America. Unlike some other butterflies, painted ladies do not have red receptors, which means they are most likely red-green colorblind.

"Painted ladies also well known for their annual migration from Britain to Africa, where tens of millions of animals are actually monitored by radar. On the way back it was shown that they were flying from Africa to the North up to the Arctic circle," — said the scientist.

To help the butterflies, such as monarchs, whose numbers are declining, experts offer specifically to plant milkweed.

Translated by «Yandex.Translator»