Painted Lady Butterfly - Western Isles - Hebrides Insects
Painted Lady Butterfly - Western Isles
Vanessa cardui - (Cynthia cardui)
One of Scotland's most familiar butterflies - common in The Western Isles. This lovely butterfly arrives in the UK all the way from Africa each year.
They come to escape the intense summer heat. It has a pale orange background colour on the upper wings, the hind wings having rows of black spots, the forewings with black tips market with white spots.
The undersides are pale with blue eyespots. The males and the females are very similar to look at.
The painted lady butterflies belong to the Nymphalids family
Migration from North Africa
The population of painted lady butterflies begin to move north from North Africa from January onwards, breeding and dying as it goes, gradually reaching most of Europe. They can reach the UK as early as February but most of the painted lady butterflies will arrive here in the Western Isles in June. The last generation will return south to Africa in August and September. Different years have seen very different numbers of these butterflies in the UK. The most-recent spectacle, in 2009, is considered to be one of the greatest migrations ever.
Sense of Taste and Smell
Important Despite having antennae for its sense of smell and its feet for its sense of taste, the Painted Lady, like most butterflies, do not have a good sense of sight. They rely on their senses of taste and smell to help them find the host plant.
Caterpillars
The caterpillars are black, speckled with tiny white spots and have a yellow stripe down each side. They are covered in spines and grow to one to one and a quarter inches in length. The caterpillar are born with six eyes, a mouth, six functional legs on its thorax and four pairs of prolegs that are not jointed but serve as balance points for the body. They spend their whole life eating till they are large enough to shed their skin and emerge with a new body, spinning the silk thread which they use to keep attached to the leaf, until after two weeks it hangs upside down and 24 hours later the skin will expose the pupa.
Pupa or Chrysalis
The chrysalis becomes practically transparent when the butterfly is about to emerge. An adult will emerge about 7 to 10 days after the chrysalis has formed. After the pupa is exposed to air for about an hour it hardens, it's a browny gold colour and there is not a movement at all for a week, infact this is the time when the caterpillar is changing into a butterfly within the pupa ( metamorphosis.)
The Painted Lady Butterfly Emerges
After the pupa hangs for one week it splits open and a butterfly emerges. The butterfly will hang on the leaf for about an hour while its wings straighten out. When an adult emerges from the split chrysalis, it hangs upside down and pumps blood into its four wings, inflating them, then it waits for its delicate wings to dry. It can fly a few hours after it emerges. Adults only live for up to two weeks. They can mate very soon after emerging
| Butterfly Overview - Painted Lady Butterfly |
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Latin name |
| Vanessa cardui - (Cynthia cardui) |
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Population |
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| Description |
This lovely butterfly arrives in the UK all the way from Africa each year. They come to escape the intense summer heat. It has a pale orange background colour on the upper wings, the hind wings having rows of black spots, the forewings with black tips market with white spots. The undersides are pale with blue eyespots. THe males and the females are very similar to look at.
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| Size |
Painted lady butterflies have a wingspan of 2 - 3 inches
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| Habitat |
The Painted Lady butterfly can be found almost anywhere, from the seashore to gardens - moors and mountainsides. Thistles are the primary food plant for his butterfly, which is probably why they love to frequent The Western Isles.
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| Food |
Here in the Western Isles, we have plenty of thistles which provide both food in the form of the nectar and also are used as larval food plants. Other plants of course also provide nectar - e.g. Viper's - bugloss
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| Seen |
The painted lady butterflies are to be seen in the late summer months, here in The WEstern Isles
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| Breeding |
There is only one brood here, unlike some other countries and the whole British population either emigrates to Africa in the autumn or dies as they are unable to survive our winter in any given stage.
Eggs
Female painted butterflies lay small green eggs on the plants like the thistles, they are the size of pinheads, and when the caterpillar hatches in 3 - 5 days, they eat the underside of the leaf, and very cleverly, as they grow, each builds a kind of tent of folded leaves all fastened by silk! When the caterpillar has grown to the right size, it pupates. It hangs upside-down from a leaf or branch, and attaches itself with a single silken string.
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| Misc. Info |
Painted ladies don't hibernate in Britain, they migrate to and from northern Africa. They can arrive in early spring, but late May and June are more usual, certainly here in THe Western Isles. They are fairly common across Britain, numerous in some years
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One of Scotland's most familiar butterflies. The Painted lady arrives each year all the way from africa |
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Click pictures below for larger photographs
