An alfalfa field between Armstrong and Enderby that is a temporary home for hundreds of thousands of Clouded Sulphur butterflies.
(HOWARD ALEXANDER / iNFOnews.ca)
August 17, 2013 - 3:29 PM
"I couldn't believe it."
ARMSTRONG - That from Jo Ann Watson about the hundreds of thousands of yellow butterflies that have taken over an alfalfa field along Highway 97 between Armstrong and Enderby.
Wilson was driving to Enderby with her husband and there was a truck in front of them.
"At first I thought it was bits of straw coming from the truck," Watson says. But then her husband noticed all the butterflies in the field along the road. "I realized what was flying down the highway was butterflies."
When Watson got home she looked up the insect in her butterfly book. She says they are Clouded Sulphur butterflies and the swarming behaviour is normal for them. But she wonders what attracted them to that particular field.
She posted a comment on Facebook and realized she wasn't the only one that had witnessed the butterfly swarm. Others said they had seen them as well.
The Clouded Sulphur butterfly, or Colias philodice, can be found from South America to Canada, and all points between.
The males feed on the nectar of flowers, so that's likely the reason from their appearance in the flowering alfalfa field north the the Log Barn tourist attraction.
To contact the reporter for this story email halexander@infotelnews.ca, or call 250-309-5230.
Clouded Sulphur butterflies pairing off in a field of alfalfa north of Armstrong along Highway 97.
(HOWARD ALEXANDER / iNFOnews.ca)
News from © iNFOnews, 2013