Painted Lady Migration

[Monarchrst at aol.com]

As I reported just a week or so ago, we hit a peak of an astonishing 200 
painted ladies per minute passing a 20 yard stretch of my driveway on Monday, 
April 23.  I am only a few minutes away from the border with Mexico.  Larvae 
were fairly common in the deserts round here, but even right on the border 
the adults were coming across in large numbers, so those probably originated 
in the extension of the lower deserts south of the border which also received 
good spring rains.  The abundance of spring flower growth didn't just stop at 
the border.  I'm sure that many were also coming from our own southwest 
deserts. 

We also had major numbers of adult White Line Sphinx, Hyles lineata, with 
larvae also abundant on the spring desert plants.  The adult numbers peaked 
between March 27 and April 2.

Ian Watkinson, Yuma, Arizona.

 
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