Painted Ladies.

[Cris Guppy & Aud Fischer]

As far as I have been able to determine, Painted Ladies that fly north
through southern CA in early March arrive in southern British Columbia in
mid-April.  In a "peak" year, the migrants can be seen arriving on southern
Vancouver Island in reasonable numbers (dozens seen flying in from the south
each hour, over a period of a couple days). So a period of about 4 weeks is
required to fly from southern CA to southern BC, and the Painted Ladies are
only moderately worn when they arrive. The adults arriving in BC must be the
same as those passing through southern CA, because there has not been time
for a new generation. I would expect an occasional individual to make it to
southern Alaska in early to mid-May.

An additional wave of migrant Painted Ladies arrives in southern BC about a
month after the first (in better condition than the first wave), and a third
wave may arrive about a month after that (by which time "local" butterflies
are flying, and it is difficult to separate migrants from them). So a June
migrant in Alaska is likely to result from the second northward migration of
a season, likely from offspring of the first migration that were produced in
Oregon and southern WA.

The above is derived from observations I made over a period of two years
while living in Victoria, on the southern tip of Vancouver Island.


-----Original Message-----
From: Kenelm Philip <fnkwp at aurora.alaska.edu>
To: leps-l at lists.yale.edu <leps-l at lists.yale.edu>
Date: May 5, 2000 11:17 AM
Subject: Re: I need help.......


>
> With regard to the 1973 Kenai Peninsula records for _V. cardui_
>(Painted Lady), Paul Cherubini asked:
>
>> And I wonder if the moderately worn Painted Ladies migrating north in
>> California in April are capable of living to June?
>
>There were 4 specimens in that series, and the collection dates ranged
>from 5 July through 1 August. Presumably these were from a later flight?
>
> Ken Philip
>fnkwp at uaf.edu
>
>
>