Migration of Painted Lady Butterflies

Most of us are familiar with the incredible migrations of monarch butterflies. Until recently, scientists could not track a butterfly species migrating distances exceeding the monarchs. It is the migration of painted lady butterflies.

These butterflies weigh less than a gram, so attaching tracking devices to them is impossible. For that reason, the paths traversed by the migration of painted lady butterflies were unknown until researchers developed a tracking system involving hydrogen and strontium isotopes in their wings.

As with monarch butterflies, painted ladies make their migrations over several generations. Unlike monarchs that specialize in milkweed, painted ladies feed on numerous host plants, allowing them to migrate up to 9,300 miles annually. The migration of painted lady butterflies in Europe and Scandinavia involves traveling to Africa and back. In North America, they travel between Canada and Mexico. In Asia, they fly through the Himalayas. Painted ladies are designed to weather cold conditions with yellow fat reserves and by shivering to generate body heat. They can fly up to 30 miles per hour.

Everywhere we look in the natural world, we see examples of design showing wisdom and intelligence. The food chain would be interrupted, and life on Earth would cease to exist without insects designed to withstand all kinds of environmental factors. The migration of Painted lady butterflies is not an accident of nature, but the product of a mind that designed Earth and all that lives on it so we can be here.

— John N, Clayton © 2025

Reference: Scientific American May 2025, page 22