Painted Lady data swarm

March 27, 2009 2:08 PM

Genus Vanessa butterflies are migrating nowin North America, and you can help track them by submitting your observations. They could use a lot more data for their interactive map.
posted by the Real Dan (5 comments total)

You can do the same thing with hummiebirds.
posted by netbros at 2:56 PM on March 27

Oh yay, this is fun stuff. Thank you for posting this.

Since painted ladies are so often used in misguided butterfly releases at weddings, schools, and etc, I'm going to add this for anyone who may be interested: A North American Butterfly Association piece filled with very legitimate reasons to avoid frivolous butterfly release.
posted by Coatlicue at 5:38 PM on March 27

I may have encountered one yesterday (Santa Rosa, CA). It was between my parked car's rear wheels, flapping its wings and moving around a bit on the pavement, but not taking off. It crawled onto a piece of paper that I put in its path, then I put it in the shade of a nearby bush so I could back out without squishing it. Now I wish I'd paid more attention to its markings. Definitely not a Red Admiral, but it could have been one of the others.

Thanks for posting! I'm glad to be slightly less clueless about butterflies now than I was yesterday.
posted by cybercoitus interruptus at 5:39 PM on March 27

Thanks the Real Dan! I saw an admiral in my yard this week, chowing down on a wild strawberry. I'll keep an eye out for more and report them if I see them.
posted by zinfandel at 6:34 PM on March 27

There are a heck of a lot of butterflies flying across Sunnyvale at this time, but whether or not any of these are Red Admiral or Painted Ladies I have know idea. They won't sit still long enough for me to look at their wings.
posted by eye of newt at 2:38 PM on March 28