painted lady

not listed

N5 - Secure
SNRB - Unranked Breeding

not listed

Painted lady is a migratory, medium-sized, brushfooted butterfly. It has a wingspan of 2″ to 2⅞″. Males and females look alike. The summer form is larger and brighter orange, the winter form is paler and has smaller black marks.

The outer edge of the forewing is slightly scalloped and the tip (apex) is pointed. The upperside of the forewing is orangish-brown at the base, pinkish- or reddish-orange in the median area, and brownish-orange in the postmedian and marginal areas. The margin has a broad, black border with a prominent series of white, crescent-shaped marks (lunules) on the outer margin. Within the marginal border in the apical area there is a row of round, disconnected, orange spots and a row of thin, crescent-shaped, white spots. The apical area is black with a large, elongated, postmedian, always white spot at the leading (costal) edge and a curved row of smaller, round, submarginal, white spots. A jagged, black, interrupted, median band completely isolates an orange median spot.

The hindwing is rounded and slightly scalloped with series of white lunules on the outer margin that are sometimes connected to form a white fringe. The upper side of the hindwing is brownish-orange with a orangish-brown base and four bands of black spots: a marginal band of six disconnected spots; a submarginal band of six flattened spots, the outer four disconnected, the inner two (closest to the body) connected and with blue centers; a postmedian band of four round, disconnected spots; and a median band of four irregular, more or less connected spots. The postmedian spots on the summer form have blue centers, while those of the winter form do not.

The underside of the forewing is pinkish-orange near the base, orange in the median area, grayish-brown in the apical area, with white and black markings mirroring those on the upper surface.

The underside of the hindwing is irregularly banded and mottled with light and dark brown edged with white. There are two rows of spots: a postmedian row of four large eyespots with blue centers; and a submarginal row of eight flattened blue spots rimmed with black, the inner two spots (closest to the body) connected.

The caterpillar is variable in color and up to 1¾″ long. Though fierce looking, they are harmless to the touch. The thorax and abdomen may be green, yellow, or pink to nearly black. They are finely spotted and moderately covered with long, straight, hair-like structures (seta). The spots are the expanded bases of the setae. There is usually a dark stripe bordered with two thin pale stripes in the middle of the upper (dorsal) surface. There are often light-colored spots between and just below the spiracles on most abdominal segments. These spots sometimes are joined into a single broad, jagged stripe. On the thorax and each abdominal segment there is a long, thick, stiff, branched spine (scolus) in the middorsal, subdorsal, and supraspiracular regions. The head is dark and is densely covered with long, straight, unbranched, white hairs but no scoli. The base of the leg-like structure (proleg) is densely hairy.

Mature caterpillars are found from May onward.

Wingspan: 2¾″ to 2⅞″

Fields, meadows, pastures, woodland edges, roadsides, and other open areas.

Usually two broods: early May to late May and June to mid-October

Early stage caterpillars create solitary shelters by folding upward the sides of the leaf and securing it with silk.

The male alternately perches on open bare ground waiting for a receptive female to fly by, and patrols and defends an area in search of a receptive female. After mating, the female lays green, ribbed, barrel-shaped eggs singly on the upperside of host plant leaves. The larva molts four times before pupating. The second brood adult migrates south in small groups in the fall, overwinters in a warmer area, returns north in large numbers in early May, and dies by late May.

Plants of the aster (Asteraceae) family, especially thistles (Carduus spp. and Cirsium spp.) and burdock (Arctium spp.); also legumes (Fabaceae), and mallow (Malvaceae).

Flower nectar, mostly from 3′ to 6′ tall plants in the aster (Asteraceae) family.

Sources

7, 20, 21, 24, 29, 71.

Uncommon

Migration

Painted lady butterflies migrate south beginning in August and continuing through November. They overwinter in the southwestern United States and in northern Mexico. They migrate north in the spring in most years, temporarily repopulating the United States and Canada. Some years they do not migrate at all. In years of much rain on the wintering grounds the northward migrations are enormous. The El Niño of 2015 is expected to last into the spring of 2016 and should bring much rain to the wintering grounds of the painted lady.

Minnesotans saw a huge influx of painted lady butterflies in the summer of 2017. Observers from the Twin Cities to Detroit Lakes and Pennington County have reported seeing “15 plus,” “dozens”, “lots and lots,” and “plentiful” painted lady butterflies. Lora in Corcoran reports them “swarming the soy bean field across the road.” Ruth in Big Stone County reports seeing “clouds of them.”

Painted Lady Butterflies...

There are so many of them in areas. Must of been a major hatch out.

Painted Lady on Orange Bloom

Painted Lady viewing Lake Superior

Sept 21, 2017 at least 100 visiting this week.

Painted Lady, Pennington Co. MN, 9/6/2013

Upperside

Underside

Location: Woodbury, Minnesota

Location: Rural Norman Co. Mn.

Painted Lady Butterflies...

There are so many of them in areas. Must of been a major hatch out.

Location: Glencoe, MN

they can't stay away from this sedum plant today

Location: backyard Owatonna, MN

Have seen several in the area in the last couple of weeks

Location: Big Stone Lake State Park

A Painted Lady Butterfly on Bull Thistle in The Big Stone National Wildlife Refuge. With the wings folded together you can see a clear veiw of the underside of this beautiful butterfly.

Location: Lyndale Park, Minneapolis, MN

Location: Big Stone Lake State Park

A painted Lady Butterfly on purple loosestrife in The Big Stone Lake State Park Meadowbrook area.

Location: Marshall,MN

They are all over Marshall by the hundreds, with many Monarchs as well. They are on various trees, shrubs, and thistle plants

Location: Apostle Islands in Lake Superior

Painted Lady viewing Lake Superior

Location: Maple Grove, MN

We have many large Autumn Joy Sedums all around the yard and every one of them had this many Painted Lady butterflies on them. It was a shocking and wonderful sight!

Location: North Shore Lake Superior

Sept 21, 2017 at least 100 visiting this week.

Location: St. Paul, MN

Lots and lots of these beautiful butterflies on our backyard flowers…take a look. Once I counted them and there were over 40!.

Location: Detroit Lakes, MN

approximately 12 on Sedum in the sunshine

Location: St. Paul, MN

Over 20 on the sedum plants in the late afternoon sun on Thursday, Sept. 7th.  The next day there were just a couple in my yard - one was on an overripe tomato that had burst open.

Location: Anoka, MN

I have had large numbers (15+ at a time) of painted ladies in my yard the past few weeks. They love the tithonia and the ligularia.

Location: Plymouth, MN

These seem smaller than monarchs, any ideas? I am a master gardener & have never seen them this plentiful in my yard before. Yes, I have many roses, milkweed, phlox, sedum, rudbeckia. It is a marvelous spectacle that I stop & stare in wonder many times a day.... My dog, Lucy & I dress up as monarchs & give out milkweed seeds at Halloween (candy too, of course).

Location: Victoria, Minnesota

Dozens of them are feeding on the many, mature and blooming Stonecrop plants in my yard. This is the first year they have appeared in such numbers to be noticeable. I typically see several varieties of bees feeding on these plants ... this year the bees have some lovely competition!

Location: Edina, MN

3 were feeding on sedum plant

Location: Foley, Mn

We have a large group of painted ladies in our perennial garden. They seem to be especially attracted to the sedum.

Location: Corcoran, MN

I believe we have lots of Painted Ladies in Corcoran MN right now. They are swarming the soy bean field across the road and coming to visit my perennial beds.

Location: in my backyard St Louis Park, MN

Location: Big Stone County

Very prevalent in Big Stone County by Clinton, MN.  They are feasting on heliotrope, lantana, and sunflowers in my yard -- but there are hundreds sitting on gravel roads in the area, clouds of them!

Location: Pennington Co. MN

It's been a banner year up here for the Painted Lady Butterfly. I don't recall ever seeing the numbers in in the past like I have this year. Very large second emergence for this butterfly this year. I was just out to a patch of Burdock, in which at least 20 Ladies were working for a bit of nectar. Looking about the surrounding area there are even more working Sow Thistle and Goldenrod.

Location: Pennington Co. Minnesota