Painted Lady

Another one of our migrant butterfly species, Painted Lady’s travel huge distances from north Africa, the middle east and parts of central Asia to the UK over the summer months. Their migrations are some of the largest and most magnificent in the butterfly world.

Painted Lady’s are very widespread within the UK and can be found in almost any habitat feeding on a variety of species including Buddleia and other flowers. Their caterpillars will feed on a variety of nettles and Viper’s bugloss. As one of our larger butterflies, they can be identified as mainly orange with black patterns on the upper wing, with black and white spots in the upper corners. They can be differentiated from small tortoiseshell by the lack of a white trailing edge and having only black and white spots in the corners of the wing.