25, he observed around 250 butterflies per minute, marking the peak of this swarm. It was a different story in October last year, when Walpita observed large swarms of crimson roses coming from over the sea, passing his station as they headed toward the Sri Lankan mainland. Not all the butterflies make it across unharmed.

Sri Lanka’s northern Mannar Island records large numbers of crimson rose butterflies every October as they make the ocean crossing from India. But Walpita hadn’t observed any increase in the local population of crimson roses. If the crimson roses crossed to Sri Lanka, they would show up in Mannar. He’d recently heard about the aggregation of butterflies across the strait in India and was on alert. “They were so focused on their journey that they were flying right into our faces to reach the flowers on the beach, as if to fortify themselves with nectar before takeoff.”Īcross the sea and over the horizon, about 25 kilometers (15 miles) away, lies Sri Lanka’s Mannar Island, where butterfly enthusiast Lahiru Walpita is stationed. “One by one, the butterflies were using the coastline like a predetermined path and continued their journey toward the sea,” Paulmathi Vinod told Mongabay. 14 on the southern Indian beach of Dhanuskodi. Some of the crimson rose butterflies observed on Feb. Then they rose up, in their thousands, and began flying toward the sea.

These were crimson rose butterflies ( Pachliopta hector), here to feed on the flowering plants in the coastal region. And, in a serendipitous fit with the Valentine’s theme, these butterflies had bright red bodies and striking red markings on their black wings. It hadn’t occurred to them that it was Valentine’s Day, but the couple was in for a gift from nature: the spectacular sight of thousands of butterflies in flight. Researchers have called for more studies to be done to better understand the phenomenon, including through contributions from citizen scientists in both Sri Lanka and India.ĬOLOMBO - Travel bloggers and butterfly enthusiasts Paulmathi Vinod and Vinod Sadasivan were at Dhanushkodi Beach in southern India’s Tamil Nadu state for some bird-watching on Feb.Unlike the better-known migration of the monarch butterfly in North America, the movements of the crimson rose are meandering and dispersed, often triggered by the start of rains following a long dry spell.A recently observed migration of a large swarm of crimson rose butterflies from India to Sri Lanka has highlighted how little we still know about this natural phenomenon.

China sea of roses