"The same old Painted Lady"
Does anyone recognise the title as a line from David Bowie's Song for Bob Dylan from the album Hunky Dory? I couldn't work out the relevance back then and I still can't now but I don't think he was talking about butterflies. Have a listen, here it is on Youtube: www.youtube.com/watch?v=FiK7HcUx_BY
The name Painted Lady for this butterfly sounds modern but it is about as old as it can be. The earliest published butterfly book in Britain was by James Petiver in 1699. Before Petiver butterflies had no English names and he came up with the name Painted Lady, which has been with us ever since. The only real dissent came about a hundred years later in 1795 when William Lewin proposed "the Thistle" as a direct translation of its scientific name (cardui) on which its caterpillars feed. Fortunately Lewin's name didn't catch on and Petiver's beautifully evocative name endured.
This one was feeding in a meadow of Field Scabious near Penistone in South Yorkshire.
"The same old Painted Lady"
Does anyone recognise the title as a line from David Bowie's Song for Bob Dylan from the album Hunky Dory? I couldn't work out the relevance back then and I still can't now but I don't think he was talking about butterflies. Have a listen, here it is on Youtube: www.youtube.com/watch?v=FiK7HcUx_BY
The name Painted Lady for this butterfly sounds modern but it is about as old as it can be. The earliest published butterfly book in Britain was by James Petiver in 1699. Before Petiver butterflies had no English names and he came up with the name Painted Lady, which has been with us ever since. The only real dissent came about a hundred years later in 1795 when William Lewin proposed "the Thistle" as a direct translation of its scientific name (cardui) on which its caterpillars feed. Fortunately Lewin's name didn't catch on and Petiver's beautifully evocative name endured.
This one was feeding in a meadow of Field Scabious near Penistone in South Yorkshire.