June 25, 2024 This article has been reviewed according to Science X's editorial process and policies . Editors have highlightedthe following attributes while ensuring the content's credibility: fact-checked peer-reviewed publication trusted source proofread by University of Ottawa In October 2013, Gerard Talavera, a researcher from the Botanical Institute of Barcelona at CSIC, made a surprising discovery of painted lady butterflies on the Atlantic beaches of French Guiana—a species not typically found in South America. This unusual sighting prompted an international study to investigate the origin of these butterflies.
Using innovative multidisciplinary tools, the research team co-led by Gerard Talavera from the Institut Botànic de Barcelona, Tomasz Suchan from the W. Szafer Institute of Botany, and Clément Bataille, associate professor in the Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences at the University of Ottawa—with Megan Reich, a postdoctoral researcher from the Department of Biology at uOttawa, Roger Vila and Eric Toro Delgado, scientists from the Institute of Evolutionary Biology and Naomi Pierce, a professor of Biology in the Department of Organismic and Evolutionary Biology at Harvard University—embarked on a scientific mission to track the journey and origin of those mysterious Painted Ladies. The migration of the butterflies was featured in the article titled, " A trans-oceanic flight of over 4,200 km by painted lady butterflies ," published in Nature C.
