Whist
birdwatching in the Tanoumah area of southwest Saudi Arabia I came across a
Painted Lady Butterfly. I have seen these hundreds of times in the Eastern
Province of Saudi Arabia where I live but have not seen them on my many visits
to the southwest until this trip. Painted Lady butterflies which is one of no
less than 130 species of butterfly that occur in the Arabian region. The
majority of these butterflies live in the mountainous regions of south-west
Saudi Arabia, Yemen and Oman, but even the desert regions have their permanent
and semi-permanent residents. The Painted Lady belongs to a group of
butterflies which have not specialized, yet also survive. They are a migrant
species and their survival strategy is based on mobility and the endless search
for conditions where they can breed. The Painted Lady and other migrant
butterflies are less specialized in their choice of food plant and habitat than
most of the sedentary species. This is because they can't be as fussy to
survive and as a result can live in harsher environments. If winter rains have
been good and flora has flourished the number of Painted Lady recorded
increases significantly.
