Long distance traveller

Painted Lady of course. One of the most widely spread butterflies in the world. Antarctica and South America are the only continents where they are not found.

Most people will know that they arrive in Britain from France at this time of year and in some years they come in millions.

But it has been a mystery in the past whether in the Autumn they return to Africa. Some research seems to show that they do in fact return but that they do so at very high altitudes.

There is a very interesting article in Wikipedia which discusses whether these long migrations are done over more than one generation.