Painted lady

Language English

Vanessa cardui

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Description

This beautiful butterfly has orange wings with black and white spots. The brown colouring of the butterfly’s thorax extends to the inner area of its wings. The back of its wings is lighter in colour and the edge of the lower wing has a row of eyespots.

Life cycle

The pale green eggs are laid one by one. There are two generations each year.

Geographic distribution

The painted lady is the most common butterfly in the world.

French name

Belle dame

Scientific name

Vanessa cardui

English name

Painted lady

Class

Insecta

Order

Lepidoptera

Family

Nymphalidae

Consult

Brush-footed butterflies

Habitat/Diet

Habitat

This butterfly is found along forests and roads and in flowering meadows and prairies.

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Interesting facts

Adults fly from the end of April to the beginning of October. Caterpillars are active from June to August. Some years, the species is very common.

Related species

Great spangled fritillary

Adults have bright rust-coloured wings with several black spots. Females have black marks on the edges of their wings.
Monarch

Monarchs are butterflies with orange, black-veined wings. Each wing has a black border with rows of white dots. Their wingspan of 93 to 105 mm makes them some of the largest butterflies in Quebec.

Males have two tiny black spots on the top of their hind wings. The black bands on the females’ wings are also wider.
Mourning cloak

This large butterfly has a wingspan of 6 to 8 cm. Its wings are purplish brown, with a line of blue spots along a yellow border. Males and females look alike.
Question mark

The question mark is one of the largest and loveliest of the Polygonia butterflies. Its wings are rust-coloured with many black and pale lilac spots close to the edges. The silver mark shaped like a question mark on the underside of its lower wings is where it gets its English and Latin name.
Red admiral

This butterfly’s wingspan ranges from 5.5 to 6 cm. Its forewings are black with white spots and a red stripe. Its lower wings are marbled brown and black, with an orange spot on the edge.
Viceroy

This butterfly’s wingspan ranges from 6.5 to 7.5 cm. Their orange colour contrasts with their black ribs. There is one row of white spots along the wide black edge of their wings.
White admiral

The caterpillar and chrysalid of this butterfly look like bird droppings, which protects them from predators. Adults have two pairs of black wings with white stripes. The edge of their bottom wings features reddish-orange and blue spots.