Every year, painted lady butterflies born in Europe head south on their long journey to Africa. Like monarchs, these butterflies make marathon migrations. They travel 12,000 km (@7500 miles) each year. This is the longest of any known butterfly migration.
No single butterfly completes the entire round trip; it takes multiple generations. Scientists have identified 10 generations of the butterflies during their annual migratory cycle from equatorial Africa to the northernmost parts of Europe and back. They find nectar and host plants all along their route, in city or country. Part of their migration takes them across the Sahara and Arabian deserts, timing their migration to the brief bloom of wildflowers in the deserts that follows seasonal rains.
In 2023 researchers identified where painted ladies spend their winters (December through February): in the savannahs and highlands across Central Africa, as far west as Cote d’Ivoire and east to Kenya and Ethiopia. During the winter rainy season in Central Africa, the butterflies and their caterpillars feast on a variety of plants. Then they head back north, as far as Norway.
The photographer Lucas Foglia followed the butterflies on their migration producing a book and exhibition called Constant Bloom. "From the perspective of these butterflies, which live only five weeks, the world is always blooming," he says.
