Freeway lane closed for purple crow butterfly migration

Taipei, March 26 (CNA) The outer northbound lane of a section of National Freeway No. 3 will be closed until 1 p.m. Tuesday to protect large swarms of purple crow butterflies heading north as part of their seasonal migration.

Chen Jui-hsiang (陳瑞祥), head of the Taiwan Purple Crow Butterfly Ecological Preservation Association, said the Freeway Bureau has set up protective netting 4 meters high and 1,100 meters long along northbound lanes between the freeway's 251- and 253-kilometer markers.

It also closed the outer northbound lane along that stretch of freeway in Yunlin County's Linnei Township at 9 a.m. Tuesday, as over 250 migrating butterflies per minute were spotted, Chen said.

Later at around 10 a.m., as many as 1,080 butterflies per minute -- the most so far this year -- flew along the No. 3 freeway heading north, Chen said.

According to the association, there will be another swarm of butterflies flying north and passing over the same freeway before the Tomb-Sweeping Day long weekend, which starts April 4.

The Taiwanese purple crow butterfly is one of only two butterfly species in the world known to make an annual north-south/south-north migration, the other being the Mexican monarch butterfly.

Purple crow butterflies fly to warmer areas of southern Taiwan in the late autumn and early winter and return north the following spring.