Heavy rains in the drier parts of the Arabian Peninsula and Africa caused an increase in the spring populations of painted lady (Vanessa cardui) butterflies. As a result of the pressure to obtain food and avoid competition, large proportions of the butterfly population, that is billions of butterflies, migrated through Lebanon and the Levant and across the Mediterranean Sea to Cyprus and from there onto Europe, while some stayed behind as part of resident populations. These butterflies will make the oneway trip to temperate regions and breed there, the next generation making the autumn migration to Africa. Some speculate that Lebanon and the Levant region haven’t experienced this type of large-scale migration in a century, since 1917. Although the actual mechanism behind the migration is under research, these white, yellow, and brown butterflies, seen as drab, mothlike, and unattractive by many, are believed to migrate across Mediterranean islands like Cyprus, Crete, Sicily, Corsica, and the Balearics, where they might stop momentarily to take a respite among the island wildflowers that will supply them with the energy needed to make such a long intercontinental flight. This cosmopolitan species has a worldwide distribution and depends on a large number of host plants, among them Compositae, Brassicaceae, Malvaceae, and numerous other species, including a number of agriculturally important plants and crops like radishes, lettuce, strawberries, tobacco, citrus, rice, and maize. This butterfly, in places where it’s resident, is one of the first species that emerges in spring and has many generations or broods each year, flying throughout the spring, summer, and autumn months, or year long in warmer places.
