Painted Lady
The Painted Lady cannot survive the British winter but each year it reappears in greater or lesser numbers. In North Africa and the Middle East it is continuously brooded and each spring Painted Ladies disperse from these areas in search of new places to breed and lay eggs. When conditions suit them they can appear in Britain in huge numbers, which multiply again as they breed here. The caterpillars feed on thistles but the adults feed on a range of nectar-rich flowers. But thistles too are a favourite nectar source and a few remaining blooms on Creeping Thistle were proving very attractive among the sea of thistledown. In the autumn some of the British Painted Ladies make the return journey back to North Africa.
The name Painted Lady sounds like a modern construct but it has been in use since the seventeenth century when the first butterfly books in the English language were published. Even its first Latin description was Papilio Bella Donna; Beautiful Lady butterfly.
Painted Lady
The Painted Lady cannot survive the British winter but each year it reappears in greater or lesser numbers. In North Africa and the Middle East it is continuously brooded and each spring Painted Ladies disperse from these areas in search of new places to breed and lay eggs. When conditions suit them they can appear in Britain in huge numbers, which multiply again as they breed here. The caterpillars feed on thistles but the adults feed on a range of nectar-rich flowers. But thistles too are a favourite nectar source and a few remaining blooms on Creeping Thistle were proving very attractive among the sea of thistledown. In the autumn some of the British Painted Ladies make the return journey back to North Africa.
The name Painted Lady sounds like a modern construct but it has been in use since the seventeenth century when the first butterfly books in the English language were published. Even its first Latin description was Papilio Bella Donna; Beautiful Lady butterfly.