Painted Lady Invasion?

[Burnetted at aol.com]

Hi Eddie,

You said, "Here in Barbados in the Eastern Caribbean, we are seeing Painted
Lady butterflies regularly this autumn, all over the place in small numbers.
This is unusual, because we know of only one or two previous records and we
have not seen any in the (virtually)10 years we have been looking.  Where do
they come from?  From the North or from across the Atlantic?  I would be
interested to find out where!"

An alternate possibility is that someone is releasing them.  Here in the US it
has become popular for butterflies to be released at weddings, particularly
Painted Ladies and Monarchs.  (I hate that practice and hope the fad ends
soon!)  Teachers and their classes also release Painted Ladies after using
them to demonstrate the butterfly life cycle.  You can even buy Painted Lady
"kits" through the mail.

Now I have a question for you: Is there a field guide that covers the
butterflies of Barbados, or are the North American guides sufficient?

Cheers,

Dennis Burnette
Greensboro, NC
burnetted at aol.com