The white butterflies are not just in Sandton, there are also parts of South Africa where there are thousands of butterflies every morning like in Mogopa Village, North West in Ventersdorp. It is also clear that these butterflies are also found in nearby areas (villages) in Ventersdorp such as Tsetse, Mafole and possibly in Boikhutso.
Mogopa Residents are not aflutter as the Sandton residents, as they swarmed twitter with butterfly tweets. I don’t know where these butterflies come from but Earle Whiteley who is a lepidopterist (an entomologist who specializes in the collection and study of butterflies and moths), told news24 in a report that each year swarms of these butterflies descent from SA west coast to Madagascar.
This happens during their annual migration, Whiteley explained.
“They start hatching along the entire coast from Cape Town towards Namibia, and then migrate inland in a north-easterly direction.”
So many white butterflies, from Sandton, all the way to Bryanston.
— Tshepi Vundla (@TshepiVundla) January 28, 2020
@Eusebius @Radio702 They’re everywhere lol. The white looking butterflies. This is in Sandton right now pic.twitter.com/qmi1zYueVb
— IG: bosssindim (@SindiMzizi) January 28, 2020
There are butterflies all over Sandton. Does this mean we can go home? Let’s migrate?🙋🏾♂️
— sandile-N (@SNotboogie_) January 28, 2020
They’re here! The annual mid summer butterfly migration descends on the garden where I work. I used this annual migration in a scene in JOHANNESBURG. The white, brown-veined butterflies are heading for Mozambique. Millions float across the city on their journey. Exquisite! pic.twitter.com/JMDgExx27T
— Fiona Melrose (@FMelroseWriter) January 28, 2020
News report inspired by the News24 report
EWN confirmed that it was happening all over South Africa, or at least in most parts of South Africa. It has happened in KZN, Gauteng, Free State, and Northern Cape.
In the same report, ENW spoke to Dr. Vaughn Swart from University of the Free State, in the Zoology and Entomology department and she said:
“The butterflies originate from arid places in the country such as the Karoo and head in a north-easterly direction towards Mozambique and northern KwaZulu-Natal, It can take between two to four days for the brown-veined white butterfly to reach its destination as it flies across the country, “
LISTEN TO LIVE RADIOEveryone go outside and look at the beautiful white butterflies migrating through Jhb today 🦋
— IlhaamHoosen (@IlhaamHoosen) January 28, 2020
iBusiness on COVID-19
