UC Davis Professor Says Rain Will Delay Butterflies' Emergence

DAVIS (CBS13) — A UC Davis professor says the wet season is expected to have an effect on the amount of butterflies in the region.

Fore the last 40 years, UC Davis professor Art Shapiro has held a contest awarding a pitcher of beer to the first person to find a European cabbage butterfly after the first of the year.

Sometimes the insects are spotted in early January. In 2016, one was spotted in mid-January. But Shaprio says this year's storms will likely prevent the butterflies from emerging until the spring.

"If it's cloudy and cold, or it's raining, they won't come out and this is going to be a fairly later year because of the weather," he said.

There may be more butterflies this summer, because the high-river runoff kills off many of the insect's natural predators.