[dropcap size=big]A[/dropcap] massive swarm of at least 1 billion butterflies is traveling across Los Angeles and neighboring counties at a breathtaking speed of almost 20 miles an hour, reports said.
The butterfly species Painted Ladies, cousins to the Monarch butterfly, are in a rush to reach breeding areas in Oregon after spending winter in the deserts of northern Mexico, according to Tom Merriman, a director of a butterfly non-profit group in Encinitas, in an interview with the Pasadena Star News. “They’ve laid tons of eggs in the desert, and so there may be over a billion butterflies,” Merriman told the paper.
Social media users in L.A. reported seeing the fluttering insects across the region, from Glendora to the beaches to South-Central L.A. Butterflies floated quickly across Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard in South L.A. from downtown to Leimert Park.
Walked outside to find thousands and thousands of butterflies flying in a constant stream through #redondobeach. Thought it was debris in the wind at first but looks like some sort of migration. Any ideas @NHMLA ? @CBSLA pic.twitter.com/v1Zb8PH7pY
— John Schreiber (@johnschreiber) March 11, 2019
Experts said the migration is prompted also by California’s heavy winter rains. Butterflies had actually become scarce in California during the prolonged previous drought, the L.A. Times noted.
* Updated.
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