Sunday, March 17, 2019

PAINTED LADIES -- ECOLOGY -- CLIMATE WARMING



They’re in a hurry -- heading north where it’s temperate.  Must find  a mate -- lay some eggs --   lots of ground to pass over in only two weeks before they die.   They fly fast – “about 20 miles per hour and they’ve been clocked at 25”.    They “...winter in various places in northern Mexico and Southern California like the Mojave Desert...preferring open habitat like desert, sage growth and meadows.”  They’re painted lady butterflies in this Robbie and Gary Gardening Easy video:  



Emerging from my house one morning this week I was enveloped in a river of painted lady butterflies flowing up my driveway, swooping all about me, upward over my garage.  I drove my car to Route 66 with butterflies continuing to dart around the vehicles there, too, as the painted ladies migrated southwest toward ....  where?

Ecologist Jeff Holmquist, a research scientist at the UCLA White Mountain Research Center and the UCLA Institute of the Environment and Sustainability describes how the painted ladies ate and ate and ate when they were mere caterpillars (before making a chrysalis) storing up an incredible amount of energy – “a backpack full of food...that’s an abdomen full of fat” before emerging as a butterfly.  “You may as well imagine eating like crazy for a week, crawling into a sleeping bag for a few weeks, and coming out as an eagle”. 

“If you see them hit your windshield, you’ll see that yellow spat, and that’s the lipids.  Fat reserves are very important for a lot of insects, and that’s part of why many societies are rediscovering them as food right now, or have traditionally eaten them.  Butterflies are very fatty.” 

“Expect to see earlier migrations, as the climate warms.”   The painted lady is “probably the world’s most widely distributed butterfly, living everywhere but South America and Antarctica.  There’s a very large migration in Eurasia that’s even more striking than what we have right now, and one that goes from the Sahara to England.”

“A lot of species are very specific in their choice of host plants, but painted ladies aren’t picky.  They're real generalists ... eat lots of thistles, sage, sunflower and mallow plants ... so they’re fine.  But we’re in danger of losing so many other species”

Support butterflies and biodiversity by planting some milkweed.  
“Monarch butterflies need milkweed.  People need to plant the native northern milkweed – the southern, more tropical milkweeds don’t have the same seasonal cycle, and that may remove an important migration cue for monarchs.  Other than that, any good nectar plants are good for a butterfly garden”. 

The painted ladies numbers were thick that I encountered at my house and on Route 66 compared to those shown in the 9+ mins. video above.   The Next Morning segment beginning 6+ mins. into the video I thought was of special interest. 

I did slow a bit as I drove down the Route 66/Foothill Blvd. that has a 40/45 mph limit in my effort to minimize painted lady casualties, all the time wishing the butterflies would fly a bit higher in the sky. 

Migrations of all types are fascinating as some readers here have written about on their blogs. 

I think, too, about the many varieties of insects other societies eat, including some butterfly caterpillars as Holmquist has described some native American Indians do.  

Climate warming not only will have humans adapting but vegetation and creatures on our planet will be doing the same.   What will we be doing -- will our diet be altered -- will we care even more for creatures other than ourselves -- so much unknown.   


14 comments:

  1. We have a place in Michigan where they gather for migration and they are so thick they actually show up on radar. Fascinating creatures. Need to get some milkweed to plant this summer.

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    1. Be sure to get the native northern variety of milkweed.

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  2. My Grandgirl, a previously finicky eater, was completely changed having lived in India and Cambodia and Korea and when she told me she ate crickets, I nearly fainted. She said she was getting ready for the coming prohibition of meat if we were to save the planet from extinction.

    But those beautiful butterflies? I've always loved the story of the butterflies, the long exhausting flights, the cycle of life.

    Beautiful post.

    XO
    WWW

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    1. Crickets, fried grasshoppers and I don’t know what other insects people eat. But if we eat more of the insects in competition with birds and other creatures whose food source they are, how will that affect ecology?

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  3. Wow, those are facinating facts about the painted lady butterfly. I had no idea they flew so fast and carried back packs(well tummy packs). Haven't seen any here.

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    1. They pack a lot of living into their two weeks on earth.

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  4. No butterflies round here, Painted Ladies or otherwise. In fact very few butterflies the rest of the year either. Perhaps their favourite foods are hard to find. We'll have to plant some milkweed!

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    1. Perhaps some flowers that attract a variety of species might draw out a few butterflies.

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  5. I do hope there are enough of us "sane" ones to overcome the others. (The ones who spout that God gave them dominion over land and sea and think it means they can spoil it. For the end is coming soon anyway.) They don't understand that having dominion comes with the responsibility of nurturing and protecting.

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    1. Yes, all the species are interconnected including us humans.

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  6. I've heard about the Painted Lady migration coming our way here up north. How fantastic must it be to see a flurry of them flying overhead!

    There has been a noticable decline in the nos. of insects over the last 25 years, if I remember reading correctly. Sometimes I think I can see the difference. As for planting, I've not a ton of space in which to work. The one nectar-heavy plant I have isn't blooming, for some reason. I would do well trying to plant daisies, perhaps.

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    1. Mostly the butterflies were at my body level and beside the cars, so we were right in the midst of them. They did swoop upward when encountering large stationary objects like my garage. Unlike the hilly area and valleys in the video, I live in a lower Foothill area where the streets and housing are level.

      Perhaps your plant is confused with climate change. I know my once predictable crepe mrytle tree has been erratically blooming as we’ve also contended with our now-ended drought.

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  7. I don't see many butterflies where I live, but I do appreciate hearing about the large groups of butterflies where you live.

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    1. I just did a quick check and see there are two butterflies that are endemic to Hawaii including one lovely one called Kamnehameha. I didn’t research further, but I expect there are specific plants that attract them.

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