A 1992 article on Vanessa cardui (I presume)

[Mark Walker]

No surprise to see such an article with the numbers we've been seeing - it's
newsworthy, to be sure.  On the other hand, what do these people base their
scientific opinions on?  Dennis Murphy, director of Stanford University's
Center for Conservation Biology said that "this is mother nature flexing her
muscles and suggesting that she is on a comeback".  Huh?

These bugs eat plants that are likely to be around for weeks only.  These
plants grow like wildfire after periods of rainfall, and quickly die away
when the heat and drought return.  The bugs are taking advantage of a short
lived phenomenon, as if they know (ok John Grehan, they don't KNOW anything)
that they won't have the opportunity next year.  I don't see this as an
indication of a comeback, but rather as an indication of how unlikely such
mass food supplies will be in just a short time.

I brought back about 50 of the larvae I found out near Needles on my recent
furlough from the Mojave rainfall.  That was about two weeks ago?

The new generation of Painted Ladies has already emerged - they went through
all instars in about three weeks.  Eat the plants while they're around and
expand your range quickly - cuz this place ain't no place for big fat juicy
bugs!

Mark Walker
still in Vegas

> -----Original Message-----
> From: Michael Gochfeld [mailto:gochfeld at EOHSI.RUTGERS.EDU]
> Sent: Wednesday, May 09, 2001 3:02 AM
> To: Leps-l
> Subject: A 1992 article on Vanessa cardui (I presume)
> 
> 
> In view of the recent reports of many Painted Ladys migrating (and in 
> view of the unusual commonness of American Ladies (V. 
> virginiensis) in 
> the east, I thought the following would be of interest, from that 
> venerable science publication NEW YORK POST (April 24, 1992). 
> 
> In re-reading the following I was impressed on how the phenomenon of 
> butterfly dynamics and migration (or emigration) can be 
> trivialized in 
> terms of windshields and radiators. It's a good thing that no one 
> inhaled or swallowed one.   MIKE GOCHFELD
> 
> 
> BLIZZARD OF BUTTERFLIES
> 	San Francisco (AP)--Billions of butterflies have invaded the 
> West, plastering windshields and clogging radiators as they flutter 
> north to Canada on a one-way journey in numbers that may not 
> be repeated 
> for decades.
> 	Scientists say the boom of painted lady butterflies is a 
> dramatic sign that California's water picture is brightening. 
> More water 
> means more plants for the butterflies to eat which means more 
> butterflies. 
> 	"I think the butterflies are a bellwether of environmental 
> change," said Dennis Murphy, director of Stanford University's Center 
> for Conservation Biology. "This is MOther Nature flexing her 
> muscles and 
> suggesting [she] is on a comeback."
> 	He believes this year's northbound population is 100 to 1,000 
> times its usual size. 
> 
> 
>  
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