Jingszo !

Painted ladies are the ultramarathoners of the butterfly world—even more so than monarchs. Scientists have long known about their globetrotting tendencies, but only recently have their exact migratory routes come into focus.

Over several generations the butterflies can fly up to 9,300 miles annually from Scandinavia to equatorial Africa and back.

Although not every painted lady travels widely, researchers recently detailed in PNAS Nexus that certain individuals fly up to 2,500 miles from Europe to overwintering grounds in the African Sahel, journeying over the Mediterranean Sea and the Sahara Desert on the way.

A few even inadvertently cross the Atlantic Ocean to South America, other researchers found.

In North America, meanwhile, painted ladies flutter between Mexico and Canada.

In Asia, they’ve even been spotted cutting through the Himalayas.