In message , Spider
writes
Whilst pruning my pyracantha hedge these past few days, I have been
surrounded by clouds of butterflies, mainly Painted Ladies, plus many bees
and hoverflies. This has brought up a query amongst my neighbours, which I
have been unable to answer. So, please, does anyone know what is the
collective noun for butterflies?

TIA.
Spider


Google finds swarm (which I would restrict to only some aggregations of
butterflies) and rabble (which is new to me). Perhaps cloud would also
qualify.
--
Stewart Robert Hinsley