Several enclaves of Mallorca, especially Esporles and Sóller, receive these days the visit of thousands of butterflies . This is the species Vanessa cardui , which makes an incredible journey of 12,000 kilometers in various stages, from the areas of tropical Africa to the Palearctic areas of northern Europe. Its presence in the Islands is quite common, but this year has surprised by the many colonies that have arrived, a phenomenon that has also been detected in other Spanish provinces such as Almeria, Alicante, Valencia and Murcia. In the case of Mallorca, the Serra de Tramuntana concentrates a good part of the sightings and from where more commentary has been generated on social networks.The naturalist Xavier Canyeles explains that "this is the annual migration from North Africa and is related to the arrival of hot air", adding that "during his presence in Mallorca he will leave a generation of caterpillars that will give rise to new butterflies at the end of the summer".
Regarding this cycle, Canyelles points out that "many of the butterflies were on the road due to different factors, but this offspring ensures the return to Africa during the autumn". It must mean that Vanessa cardui is not considered any type of plague.
The migratory cycle of this butterfly has aroused the interest of scientists, who believe that it maintains a certain parallelism with the monarch butterfly in North America. Volunteers from around the world participate in this study on the migratory behavior of Vanessa cardui, which has the support of the British Ecological Society, National Geography and the Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness.
