Do Painted Lady's return to the same sites on their return?
Posted: Fri Sep 04, 2015 2:15 pm
Hi there everyone
My Uncle from Chester has just called me to say he has seen the same Painted Lady he saw 5 weeks ago in his garden. He says that he could identify it was the same one because it had exactly the same malformation on its wing. Despite the malformation, it is still a strong flier by the way.
So my question is whether:
a) It's just a fluke, and it could be a different butterfly with an identical deformation;
b) It is the same one from late July, which has probably hung around in roughly the same location this last 5 weeks;
c) It is the same one from late July, which travelled North, and has now travelled back south to the same spot.
I thought that Painted Lady's were always pushing north until late August/early September when they returned south, in which case I'd have guessed at answer c). If so, does anyone know of any capture/re-capture studies that show Painted Lady's being faithful to the same sites on their return journey's south?
However I may be completely wrong and happy to be told that by late July, Painted Lady's will have stopped their northward journey?
Any thoughts anyone?
Paul
My Uncle from Chester has just called me to say he has seen the same Painted Lady he saw 5 weeks ago in his garden. He says that he could identify it was the same one because it had exactly the same malformation on its wing. Despite the malformation, it is still a strong flier by the way.
So my question is whether:
a) It's just a fluke, and it could be a different butterfly with an identical deformation;
b) It is the same one from late July, which has probably hung around in roughly the same location this last 5 weeks;
c) It is the same one from late July, which travelled North, and has now travelled back south to the same spot.
I thought that Painted Lady's were always pushing north until late August/early September when they returned south, in which case I'd have guessed at answer c). If so, does anyone know of any capture/re-capture studies that show Painted Lady's being faithful to the same sites on their return journey's south?
However I may be completely wrong and happy to be told that by late July, Painted Lady's will have stopped their northward journey?
Any thoughts anyone?
Paul