Painted Lady Butterfly
PAINTED LADY
BUTTERFLIES
The Painted Lady is found all over the world. It migrates to
milder climates for the winter. It takes about 23 days to go
through a complete life cycle or complete metamorphosis.
The Painted Lady butterfly lays eggs on plants, especially the malva
plant. The eggs are green and oval shaped. They are
about 1 mm big.
Photo by Mrs. Gray's Class, 1999
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The larva or caterpillar eats the leaves of the malva plant, thistles,
nettles, hollyhocks and sunflowers. The caterpillar is mostly black
with some light spots. It continues to grow. When it becomes too
large for its skin, the skin splits up the back and the caterpillar
re-emerges. The caterpillar usually goes through four to six
molts.
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Photo by Mrs. Gray's Class 1999
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When the caterpillar is ready to create its chrysalis, it crawls to a
safe place and hangs upside down from a branch or leaf. Then it
spins a button of silk and attaches its tail to this resting
place. It curls into a J shape and begins to form a
chrysalis. In about 24 hours the caterpillar's skin splits down
the back and the chrysalis emerges. The chrysalis is a brown color with
gold spots. In the chrysalis the caterpillar is becoming liquid and
reforming itself into a butterfly. The chrysalis stage lasts for about
7 to 10 days.
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Photo by Mrs. Gray's Class, 1999
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When the chrysalis splits, it releases the butterfly. The
butterfly pumps air into its wings and fills them with blood as they
unfold.
The butterfly also strokes the two halves of its proboscis into a straw
like tongue for feeding. The wings dry and harden the first
day. Like other butterflies, the Painted Lady butterfly is
active in the day and rests at night. When resting the
butterfly's wings are upright. As with other butterflies, Painted
Lady butterflies have thin bodies
with straight, plain antennae. The top wings of the Painted Lady
butterfly are orange, white, brown, and black with the bottom part of
the wings
being white, brown, tan, black, blue, and purple. The butterfly eats
nectar
or sugar water with its proboscis. The butterfly keeps its
proboscis curled back under its head unless it is eating. Its favorite
flowers are asters, cosmos, thistle, and buttonbush. The
adult
Painted Lady butterfly lives for about two weeks.
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Photo by Mrs. Gray's Class, 1999
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