NATURE NOTES.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXII, Issue 19031, 30 May 1925, Page 1 (Supplement)

NATURE NOTES.

THE PAINTED LADY. t BY ,T. imUMMOXI), F.L.S., F. 7..5. A timid, but somewhat conspicuous ami very elegant butterfly, which, in f midsummer and autumnal months, sometimes beautifies landscapes m New v Zealand, is receiving close attention from f Mr. E. B. Williams, of Cairo, actingchief entomologist in the Ministry of s Agriculture in Egypt. It is none other i than the Painted Lady, an ally of the lied Admiral. The upper surfaces of all i its wings are orange-red, spotted and * mottled with black. Its fore wings are bronzy toward the base, and in black areas near their tops there are about five white spots. It lacks the bright red and j deep black colours of the, lied Admiral, a and its colour scheme is more subdued than the Red Admiral's, bnt it has about t the same stretch of wing and length of ' body as that much commoner butterfly. The irregularity of its appearance was noted by Mr. G. V. Hudson, of Karori, Wellington, many years ago. He states , that in some years it is plentiful, but in s other years hardly a single individual is seen. > i This peculiarity of Ihe little Painted Lady, which is almost a cosmopolitan, ( has been noted in other countries. It is the particular point that Mr. Williams is , interested in. He ranks this insect , among the world's greatest migrants, 1 with eels, some fishes, locusts, swallows, and, as every New Zealander should i know, godwits, knots, sandpipers, and j the shining cuckoo and the long-tailed cuckoo, birds that migrate to this Do- , minion year in and year out with the j proverbial regularity of clockwork. Most i people have watched flocks of migrating birds; many people in other lands have ' experienced the migrations of locusts; but Mr. Williams points out that few know that frail insects like, butterflies ( make extended migratory flights, often , in prodigious numbers and over thousands ; of miles. Almost two hundred species of butterflies have been seen in migratory ■ flights. In most of the observations ! there are only one or two records of each i species, and in only a few cases do the records number more than about a dozen of each species. In a few there is suffi- ! cient evidence to supply a general idea ( of the migratory movements, and of these the most complete is the migration of the Painted Lady. ! It flouts its colours in every continent and in every region from the tropics to , countries that slope toward the poles. Its movements are best known at present in Europe, North Africa and Asia Minor. In or close to a line of desert that stretches across North Africa and Asia Minor, Painted Ladies begin a north and north-westerly movement in the early spring. They reach the southern shores of the Mediterranean usually about April. From Palestine, I apparently they fly through Syria and Turkey to the Balkan States. From Egypt, Tripoli and Algeria they cross the Mediterranean, and reach Southern Europe usually in May. Pushing on, but , probably leaving stragglers behind all I the time, they arrive on the level of the ) soy.tlKj£M.-,shoj«B"Of England- o£ : ; < i May or the beginning of June, and the - northern part of Scotland about the , middle of June, arid they have been re- . corded in Iceland in July. That is the t time-table of the main drift. The move- ■ ment seems to continue for many weeks : or months, at irregular intervals. Pe- : cords in other parts of the world at present arc too meagre for discussion. : Only in Europe, North Africa and Asia Minor can evidence be welded into the semblance of a whole. The most remarkable fact disclosed by the investigation is that there is practically no evidence of the Painted Ladies' return from the north to the ■ south in the autumn. As I*s,r as Mr. Williams can discover, all the butterflies that fly north of the area in which they can breed throughout the year are completely lost to the species, as, during the winter, they or their offspring perish. As he does not know of the species having developed the ability to hibernate at any stage, lie concludes that unless it can breed, continuously, it cannot survive. On this point, it is interesting to note that Mr. Hudson records hibernated individuals occurring in New Zealand from August to December. Some investigators in other places believe that there is a return flight from the north to the south, and that it escapes observation becauso it is performed individually, not in mass. Most birds breed at only one end of their migration. With these butterflies, breeding takes place throughout the whole range of the migration. The irregularity of the appearance of Painted Ladies noted by Mr. Hudson in Now Zealand has been noted in otlier places. In some years, Western Europe is invaded by countless millions of Painted Ladies. In other years hardly an individual reaches English shores. Mr. Williams finds that it is idle,, in face of the lack of knowledge, to speculate as to the conditions that determine the start of_ any of the ' migrations. The slight evidence available suggests that the direction is influenced, but not completely determined, by the wind. Painted Ladies have a .tendency to fly into the wind, rather than with it. There is equal ignoranco as to what causes Painted Ladies to cease 1 migrating. It may be fatigue, low temperature, food supplies, or development of the sex instinct. Finally, why do they ' migrate ? The answer to this question Mr. Williams leaves well alone. In tin ' meantime, he seeks co-operation in solving problems that can be solved only l>\ the combined efforts of many observers in many lands, and he will be pleased to receive results of observations in New Zealand. Particularly he wishes to have notes on the seasonal abundance of the Painted Lady m different districts, and her sudden appearance or disappearance in largo numbers. Records o) ! actual migrations should include the locality, date, approximate numbers, direction of the flight and of the wind, and other meteorological conditions. Ho will be pleased, • also, to receive Painted Ladies actually caught on migration, in order to examine and dissect them. In the annals of entomology, the Painted Lady is Vanessa cardui, or, as some entomologists prefer to call it, Pyrameis cardui. New Zca- ' land's Red Admiral is Vanessa gonerilla, and the Old Country's Red Admiral is Vanessa atalanta. With the title of : Vanessa the Painted Lady perpetuates the memory of a mysiical, mythical lady of the Greeks. " I 'wish to report tho arrival of a beautiful white heron on the shores of i Tanranga Harbour last week." Mr. F. ) A. Turner wrote on May 2. "I will not i mention tho exact place, as the visitor ■ may attract the attention of a vandal and be destroyed." Birds are abundant on the outskirts of Tauranga Borough. Mr. Turner has seen on or near his place i many pukekos, ducks, swans and tuis. i Fantails fly in and out of the house; the i wood-robin and largo flocks of white-eyes frequent tho garden; shining cuckoos are plentiful in the season and occasional i visits are paid by long-tailed cuckoos. Of introduced birds, blackbirds, song- , thrushes and Australian and Californian i quail abound, and there are a few pheasants, but weasels are becoming too clentiful.