Wondering where all those butterflies came from? Here's your answer

It has been gorgeous the last few days, which means you've surely gotten outside to baskin the final days of summerweather.

Since you've been doing that, you may havenoticedthere are butterflies all over the place. Being the inquisitive person you are, you've been wondering why.

Well, we have your answers. CBC MontrealDaybreak host Mike Finnerty spoke to Maxim Larrive, head of research and collections at the MontrealInsectarium,who explained exactly what's going on with the butterfly invasion.

This interview as been condensed and edited for clarity.

What is going on?

They're not baby monarchs, they're called painted ladies and they're actually migrating south.

Normally these butterflies migrate at a much higher altitude. It's been shown by U.K. scientists that they'll migrate up to 200, 300 metres in the air.

We don't witness their migration as often as we do monarchs. Andthey're in exceptional abundance this year, so they are all over the place.

We had really large numbers of them early this spring that came up from the southern United States, and they do that every year, but this year was fairly significant.

They went really far north so they had access to a lot territory this year, and they did great (reproduction-wise)sothat's why we have this amazing amount of butterflies around Montreal and all of southern Quebec right now.

So this is good news?

If they usually flyhigh, why are they down here with us?

They fly that high when they're in their migration in the fall. Generally we'll see a pattern like this, all kinds of individuals suddenly appearing, when the wind conditions or the migration conditions will be adverse.

They will come down and do exactly what we're seeing them doing, look for nectar on flowers, gorge themselves to replenish their energy levels and just get ready for when the conditions are right.

They just hang around, have a little rest, and something in their body will tell them when the wind and atmospheric conditions are right,and at that moment they take off.

They're going to the southern United States, the southwest, maybe northern Mexico and these places, where they can survive the winter, have another generation of butterflies and then get ready to start moving back north.

They are one of the most rugged and strongest butterfliesout there.

Every butterfly looks delicate, of course, compared to other animals, but they can fly up to 30 km/h when they're surfing on the wind, they can fly with 15 per centof their wing load when they get really damaged.

How are they different from monarch butterflies?

Well they're smaller, for one thing.

Monarchs will be completely orange with black lines crossing the wings, and they will be orange on both sides.

These guys, if they close their wings, they actually have this model pattern that allows them to blend with the ground surface really easily.

The body will be different, it's dark brown, and they don't have the white dots on the abdomen. If you have them side by side, they are completely different, even for the untrained eye.

What's the best place to see them?

I would say the Botanical Garden and the Insectarium are the best places right now for the exact reason that there are still tonnes of flowers blooming.

We had hundreds and hundreds of them in the garden last week, and you'll have a chance to see them land and perched on flowers, gorging themselves with nectar and take some pretty amazing photos and videos.

I personally find it really nice. It's hard to be in a bad mood when you're surrounded by butterflies.

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