By Bella Macleod
Features Editor
Painted lady butterflies filled Manhattan Beach, as well as other parts of Southern California, on March 11 and 12 during their migration north.
The butterflies cannot live in cold climates, so they breed in southern parts of the northern hemisphere, like Mexico. Now, approximately one billion painted ladies are migrating to Oregon and other parts of the Pacific Northwest at speeds as high as 20 miles per hour.
“There are butterflies everywhere, and while driving, I could see all the other drivers looking around at them instead of focusing on driving,” junior Courtney Canales said. “You could hear them hitting your car, which was unpleasant.”
Painted ladies are commonly found across North America and may be seen more and more in the South Bay because of this year’s abnormally large migration and wet winter, South Coast Botanic Gardens Superintendent Tanya Finney said.
“Everytime we get this much rain, plants are growing, so the caterpillars are growing as well,” Finney said. “I think we are going to see a big population explosion of insects in general this Spring.”
The painted lady butterflies, cousins to the Monarch butterfly, are orange and black and range from two to two and a half inches in size. They have a distinct wing pattern and have a mothlike look, Finney said.
“[The Painted ladies] are really fun flyers, they do fun spirals so they’re kind of hard to find up close,” Finney said. “You kind of need to sneak up on them when they’re stopped on a flower or leaf to get a good look of them.”
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