A brilliant autumn display is expected from this common British Butterfly when the last batch of caterpillars emerge as butterflies to brighten up the season.
How to identify the Painted Lady Butterfly
The butterfly has brown and orange wings with black and white spots on the forewing. The underwings are paler brown with mottled blue spots. Thistles are their favourite plant but nettles and mallows are also popular. And of course, they can be seen around buddleia bushes, also known as the Butterfly Bush, where they sip nectar from the purple flower spikes.
Life Cycle of the Painted Lady
After wintering in North Africa, butterflies arrive in the southern part of the UK in May and June. The females lay their small, green eggs on thistles and other plants and the black, speckled caterpillars hatch out after about a week.A caterpillar spends the next two weeks eating voraciously and growing fast so that it has to change its skin several times. Then it pupates and hangs suspended inside a cover of leaves fastened together with silk for protection. After a further two weeks, the new butterfly emerges.
Reasons for this Year's Bumper Numbers of Painted Lady Butterflies.
The butterflies migrate from the Atlas Mountains in Morocco where there have been heavy winter rains. This resulted in lush growth of plants that the Painted Lady caterpillars feed on so many more hatched and survived to emerge as butterflies. After a stopover in Europe to hatch a new generation, the Painted Ladies set off for more northerly climes.
It was estimated that around 20 million Painted Lady butterflies arrived on the south coast of the British Isles in May and June. One report from Norfolk on the eastern coast of England estimated that they were passing overhead at a rate of 50 each minute. These butterflies fluttered north in huge waves over a few days to settle and lay their eggs throughout the UK. They have been seen as far north as the Shetland Isles off the north coast of Scotland. This massive migration is the largest seen in the UK since the 1960's.
In Scotland, the later arrival of the butterflies has meant a later new generation hatching in September and October and producing a colourful display in the Autumn. Paul Prescott, Butterfly Conservation's species manager in Scotland, said that the butterflies were truly Scottish, having been raised on Scottish thistles.
Unfortunately, this display is likely to be short-lived as the butterflies will be unable to survive the cold weather and will die with the first frosts.
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