What kind of wing shape might a butterfly develop for regular over-ocean flight?

Question

I'm currently building a whimsical children's fantasy world; nothing needs to be 100% accurate or believable to real life, but I do want the creatures I'm creating to seem thought out for the world they inhabit :)

In this world, there was a sudden, catastrophic, worldwide flood that wiped out most fully terrestrial and freshwater life. There are a handful of scattered islands but most of the world is covered in ocean.

I've got some giant "living island" turtles already, and I wanted to design some species to fit into an ecosystem with them, when I remembered butterflies sometimes drink turtle tears! However, Most of the planet is underwater, and there aren't a lot of rest stops. These would need to to be some beefy butterflies.

My question is, what kind of wing shape might butterflies develop to regularly fly over an ocean- something like albatross, or gulls perhaps? Or could it be different because they're so much lighter? Are there any real-life butterflies I could potentially look to for inspo?

Thank you!!!

Answer 1

You'd be surprised how far real world butterflies travel when migrating. Monarch butterflies have been recorded crossing the Gulf of Mexico, a trip of 900 miles. Painted ladies make a 1400 mile round trip from Europe to Sub-Saharan Africa.

These migrations take advantage of favorable winds, with butterflies flying for up to 40 hours non-stop on longer portions of the crossing. That sort of range gives you a lot of options for island hopping butterflies taking advantages of trade winds as they follow the seasonal movements of the great turtles.