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Nabokov's Favorite Butterfly Invades NYC (And Other Places)!
By
Jen Chung
Published May 6, 2012
Modified May 7, 2012
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Jen Chung/Gothamist
By
Jen Chung
Published May 6, 2012
Modified May 7, 2012
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Have you been seeing an unusual number of orange and black butterflies fluttering about? Well, they are probably Red Admiral butterflies, which are in the middle of a migration from the South. (Update: Some Red Admirals will end up settling in NYC!) We spotted the one above during Manhattan Borough President Scott Stringer's press conference by the West 72nd Street subway station—there were dozens of butterflies flying around, landing on everything!
According to upstate paper The Daily News, "Seeing the Red Admiral in the region is not rare — it typically arrives at the end of May — but to see it in such numbers and so early in the season is not common. Scientists call this an irruption, a sudden upsurge in numbers that often occurs when natural ecological factors are disturbed." Experts say the migration is also about 4-5 weeks earlier, possibly due to the warmer-than-usual spring. And Cynthia Druckenbrod, director of horticulture and conservation at the Cleveland Botanical Garden, told The Plain Dealer, "Every once in a while its population spikes for reasons we don't always understand." It's possible there are ten times the normal number of Red Admirals this year!
Here are videos of people marveling at the butterflies:
A young girl in Ohio brought this video to her science class, and her teacher used it as an opportunity to learn more about them:
From upstate NY, Highland Park:
And in Delaware:
Literary nerds may recall the butterfly from Vladimir Nabokov's Pale Fire ("Come and be worshipped, come and be caressed,/ My dark Vanessa, crimson-barred, my blest/ My Admirable butterfly); Nabokov also said, "Its coloring is quite splendid and I liked it very much in my youth. Great numbers of them migrated from Africa to Northern Russia, where it was called ‘The Butterfly of Doom’ because it first appeared in 1881, the year Tsar Alexander II was assassinated, and the markings on the underside of its two hind wings seem to read ’1881′. There is something interesting in the Red Admirable’s ability to travel so far.'"
Update: Some Red Admirals will end up settling in NYC! There are certain plants that they do enjoy more than others, too.
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butterflies
butterfly
migration
red admiral
red admirals
vladimir nabokov
Jen Chung
Jen Chung is a former WNYC and Gothamist editor.
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Gothamist is funded by sponsors and member donations
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