You might have noticed many monarch butterflies flying by to visit lately. McPherson is right in the migration path of these stunning creatures. There have been loads of monarchs, but some of them aren’t actually the monarch butterflies we know and love.

    A multitude of butterflies have been coming in. Monarchs are the most common but there are some butterflies that look almost exactly like them. These winged beauties are called painted ladies. Many of them have been around Kansas and lately they have been thriving.

    Painted ladies don’t migrate like monarchs do though. They stay in cold climates and eventually die off, but not before they lay eggs and go on their way. The cycle ends up repeating and more painted ladies make an appearance. The butterfly impersonators are the ones being seen more than the monarchs because so many of them have been reproducing and growing. It can become hard to tell which ones are which and it ends up causing confusion.

    It’s such a unique event that occurs that people even celebrate the migration of butterflies. A few celebrations and festivals are taking place in Wichita. These festivals are pretty interesting because they aren’t only for entertainment purposes, but they are also for kids to learn about the migrating creatures and how migration works.

    Whether they are monarch butterflies or painted ladies, they are beautiful and unique creatures. While you might want to try to go butterfly catching, it’s better to leave them be. They are still on a quest to migrate and reproduce in order to keep the butterfly population at it’s highest.