THE GREAT EAST AFRICAN BUTTERFLY MIGRATION OF FEBRUARY 2007
In February 2007 many observers remarked on a huge butterfly migration between Kenya and southern Tanzania. Several butterfly specialists (including Torben Larsen and Norbert Cordeiro) strongly feel that as much documentation on this event as possible should be gathered while the evidence is fresh. Larsen once estimated a migration in Botswana to have included a minimum of 1.5 billion individuals. As much information on this event - detailed or not - might allow for a detailed analysis. Information needed includes but even casual descriptions would be welcome.
- A description of how the whole event looked to you.
- Dates of observation and localities where observed.
- Direction to the flight. Did this change over time or during the day? Was there flight
- straight, or were landscape features followed?
- How long did it last - how many hours a day did they fly?
- Behaviour - did the butterflies stop to feed - any matings - assemblage at mud-patches?
- How wide was the migration - did you "enter" or "leave" the migration?
- How "thick" was the migration. How many crossed a 50m front in a minute - 100, 50, 25, few? Visually was it as snowstorm, steady flow, or a trickle?
- Photos of migrants (preferably not huge files).
- Anything else of interest.
At the moment it seems that the migration was composed mainly or exclusively of caper whites (Belenois aurota), which often flies with the African caper white (Belenois creona). These are illustrated below. However, migration dominated by a single species may also be mixed with other species following in smaller numbers.
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Belenois spp comparision
