Natures wonders: painted lady butterfly migration (Introduction)

by David Turell , Wednesday, June 13, 2018, 23:35 (2353 days ago) @ David Turell

Over the Sahara fro Eu rope to tropical Africa and back. Much like the Monarchs in North America, but the flight is much longer, 12,000 km.:

https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2018/06/180613102004.htm

"Researchers were now able to demonstrate that painted lady butterflies return from the Afrotropical region to recolonise the Mediterranean in early spring, travelling an annual distance of 12,000 km across the Sahara Desert.

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"In a previously published study, the researchers demonstrated that painted lady butterflies migrate from Europe to tropical Africa by the end of summer, crossing the Mediterranean Sea and Sahara Desert.

"The fate of these migrants and that of their offspring remained unknown. "Our hypothesis was that the species initiates a reverse northward migration towards Europe in spring, thus completing a regular migratory cycle," states Roger Vila, one of the authors.

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"The results show a major proportion of specimens stay in the Afrotropics during winter and that those recolonising the Mediterranean are most probably their offspring. This scenario closes the loop for the Palearctic-African migratory system of Vanessa cardui and shows that the annual distance travelled by the successive generations may reach about 12,000 km, including crossing of the Sahara Desert twice.

"Whether the Painted Lady does regular migratory circuits similar to those of the monarch butterfly in North America was a matter of scientific debate. This research reveals the parallelisms in such a unique evolutionary adaptation."

Comment: Not surprising that similar species follow the same pattern of development.