Nature’s Little Barometers

 When I was out walking early this morning I noticed a steady stream of little white butterflies heading east. As the day has progressed this stream, has turned into a torrent and butterflies have been buzzing (do butterflies buzz??) past my windows all day. I love seeing these little creatures at this time of the year and I bore Lisa senseless by chirping (year after year after year) that nature’s Little Barometers are on the move and it is going to rain really hard.

Why do I call the white butterflies nature’s little barometers? Well, years ago one of my older cousins told me that when the air pressure drops the butterflies hatch; and when the air pressure drops it usually rains.

However, I thought that maybe I should check this on the internet and I have to confess that I can’t find any reference to the air pressure and hatching butterflies – or I just haven’t looked in the right place. But it does make sense doesn’t it? White butterflies = Highveld rainy season.

I did find this little snippet about them:

The white butterflies in South Africa (mainly Brown-veined Whites, Belenois aurota aurota, left) originate in the Kalahari and in other arid regions of the Northern Cape.  During some years, they have a massive population explosion where the numbers get so big that they eat all the leaves of the available food plants.  If the adults stayed in that area, there would not be any food left for their larvae so they move off towards the east, and lay their eggs as they go along.  They basically keep on flying until they die, but in many cases they actually reach the Indian ocean and are often still seen flying into the sea.