Why ‘float like a butterfly’ should have a whole new meaning – leader comment

Painted ladies butterflies take a break from their epic journey to the Arctic (Picutre: Butterfly Conservation/PA Wire)

Flying at speeds of up to 30mph and reaching a height of 1,000 metres in the sky, the painted lady butterfly’s annual 7,500-mile migration from tropical Africa to the Arctic Circle and back again truly is “one of the wonders of the natural world” - as Chris Packham said.

This extraordinary, epic journey is almost twice as long as the famous migration of the monarch butterfly in North America. This year the UK could experience what is known as a ‘painted lady summer’, an event that only happens about once every ten years, in which millions of the beautiful, fragile winged insects arrive on these shores. Sometimes the natural world does things on a simply breathtaking scale.

As the world’s largest ‘citizen science’ survey of insects, the Big Butterfly Count is another sizeable endeavour and TV naturalist Packham is encouraging people to take part.

It will help researchers studying the health of butterfly population and could also help the health of the humans who take part, with growing evidence of the hugely beneficial effects of spending time in the natural world.

If a butterfly can travel 7,500 miles, a trip to the local park seems the least we can do.