Researchers demonstrate that the Painted Lady butterfly (Vanessa cardui) crosses the Sahara Desert and the Mediterranean twice, travelling south to the sub-Sahara in the fall, then reversing the journey the following spring. The Palearctic–African migratory circuit is similar to that of migratory birds. However, the Painted Lady butterfly, which needs both temperate and tropical habitats to complete its multigenerational lifecycle, is one of the few insects known to survive an annual trans-Saharan circuit.
Biology Letters
Published June 13, 2018
URL after publication
Canadian co-author: Clément Bataille, University of Ottawa – cbataill@uOttawa.ca
