Los Angeles Times

California experiencing burst of butterflies

LOS ANGELES - They've been spotted on La Cienega, flitting north by the thousands near the Westfield mall.

They've been seen in Santa Anita, crossing a quiet residential street in a thick, fluttering line.

Hundreds of them have been seen along the 105 Freeway, where they furiously flapped their small wings as if they were trying to catch a flight at Los Angeles International Airport.

The black-and-orange insects that seem to be everywhere in Southern California aren't monarchs and they aren't moths. They are called painted ladies, and these butterflies are migrating by the millions across the state.

The migration is nothing new. Painted ladies set off from their wintering grounds in the Mojave and Colorado deserts of southeastern California as winter gives way to spring. They travel

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