CORPUS CHRISTI, Texas — Swarms of butterflies have been spotted across the Coastal Bend this week, and experts say the phenomenon is a natural response to recent weather patterns.
Dr. Michael Womack, executive director of the South Texas Botanical Gardens and Nature Center, says the insects are American snout butterflies — a species native to the area.
"Right now we're seeing an insurgence of American snout butterflies that is a native butterfly to our area and it is a response to prolonged drought followed by heavy rains because when that happens those butterflies go from being asexual to being sexually active again," Womack said.
It all starts with the spiny hackberry plant. After rains, the plant produces new leaf growth that caterpillars need to survive. It also grows berries — I even tried one.
The lifecycle moves quickly. It takes about 14 to 17 days for the butterflies to hatch, eat leaves, pupate and emerge as adults looking for plants to lay their eggs on again. Womack says the timing explains the current swarms.
"That's why we're seeing it is having that extended drought period and then the heavy rains a few weeks ago so it's just that natural cycle of life we see down here," Womack said.
The massive swarms have been hard to miss for residents across the Coastal Bend. Blake Daniel encountered them firsthand while driving.
"I thought it was a bunch of leaves blowing in the wind, but it actually turned out to be some butterflies. There was like thousands of them at once, so I was kind of worried about hitting them with my car," Daniel said.
Despite the scale of the swarms, these butterflies are not migrating in the traditional sense. They are simply moving throughout South Texas in search of a new home.
"The migration is not a true migration. It really is large masses of the butterflies just moving throughout South Texas. They're not moving north. They're not moving south like we traditionally think of migration like monarch migration, so you just see them in mass areas moving throughout the South Texas area because there is so much of this plant in our area, so they're just moving, looking for new habitat," Womack said.
Many of these butterflies will end up on windshields, but with millions currently being bred across the region, the swarms are expected to continue for now.
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