Day 35 - Understanding changing landscapes and weather through butterflies

And just like that somehow it is August. Time flutters by.

The Common Crow butterfly was resting on the side of the road.  It has probably just migrated in to the city and the coast.

Understanding changing landscapes and weather through butterflies

Yuvan speaks about the butterfly migrations that have been a spectacle this year.

Butterfly migration happens every year, but last year there was no great spectacle like this. In fact, in the last four to five years, when I have been very keenly watching them, I haven’t seen such a large migration. This July, the butterfly species migrating in greatest numbers were the Blue Tiger, the Dark Blue Tiger, the Glassy Tiger, and the Common Crow. All of them were moving from the Western Ghats to the Eastern plains due to the south-west monsoon and around November and December, when the north-east monsoon sets in, they return. Some species of butterflies have adapted to stay in the Western Ghats even during torrential rains, while the others have preferred to move as always.

Before migration, butterflies congregate in very large numbers. In forests, the Blue Tigers, and Common Crows especially, congregate on hanging vines, on aerial roots, on Banyan vines, and Tenespora. They congregate in thousands.  As the rain picks up more and more, the Blue Tigers, also called milk-weed butterflies, and Common Crows start to migrate.

Lots more interesting stuff in the interview/news report including a hypothesis as to maybe we can expect a strong NE monsoon this year, because the last time Chennai saw this level of migration was in 2015, when the city was flooded out.