Ecobreves – VENEZUELA: Yellow Butterflies Return to Caracas

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CARACAS, Jun 21 2010 (IPS) - The yellow butterflies have returned, after a harsh dry season, as the rainy months begin in the valley where Caracas is located. These insects have been absent for nearly three decades as a result of urban sprawl. The Environment Ministry said that this species — from the extensive Pieridae family — does not pose any threat to human health.

“They never completely disappeared; they could be found in the east of the capital. Their return in numerous colonies is due mostly to the heavy rains after a period of intense drought,” entomologist Rubén Candia, of the Central University of Venezuela, told Tierramérica.

The decline of some of their natural predators, like birds, spiders and other insects, hit hard by brush fires earlier this year, could also explain the return in the evenings of the tropical butterflies that Gabriel García Márquez portrayed in “One-Hundred Years of Solitude” as followers of Mauricio Babilonia.