Painted Lady
Scientific Name - Vanessa cardui
Flight Period - April to October
Overwinters as - N/A, migrates south for the winter
Habitat - Gardens, Parks, Grasslands, Woodlands etc
Larval foodplants - Thistles
Conservation status - Low priority
Northamptonshire distribution - Widespread, particularly in “invasion” years
Best public sites to see them - Anywhere with suitable habitat
The Painted Lady has one of the most impressive migrations of any butterfly. Each year they start their epic voyage in Africa and migrate their way up through Europe before making the leap across the English Channel and into the UK. Incredibly in the autumn they then make a return trip at high altitude back to the south. Being a migrant their abundance each year can fluctuate a great deal. In some years we hardly see any but in other years they can be everywhere. They are extremely strong flyers and sometimes the first you are alerted to the presence of a Painted Lady is when you see the orange flash as it rockets passed you! Planting lots of nectar-rich plants in the garden is a great way of attracting this butterfly into the garden, they are particularly fond of buddleias.
Painted Lady Distribution 2018 - 2022
The Painted Lady can be a common visitor to the garden and is especially attracted to nectar sources such as the Buddleia
Painted Lady underwing
A Painted Lady egg on a thistle
The cryptic camouflage of the underwing of the Painted Lady can be remarkably effective
Being a long distance migrant the Painted Lady can still fly strongly despite sometimes looking rather worse for wear