The Painted Lady Butterfly

One day, when I was walking home with my friend, we saw a butterfly. I knew it was a Painted Lady because it had little black patches in between the black lines on its orange wings. I took it home because it had a torn wing. Painted Ladies are one of the hardiest butterflies in the world. They can fly about 600 miles! Painted Ladies live in all over the world and migrate north every spring from North Africa and the South of France to Northern Europe. Many Painted Ladies don't make the whole journey north. At some point in the migration Painted Ladies stop, mate and lay eggs. The emerged butterflies continue the flight north. When Painted Ladies travel north from the deserts of Africa they cross the Alps, high mountains in Switzerland.

Unlike other butterflies the Painted Ladies cannot use front legs for walking. They are sometimes called "Brush-footed butterflies" because of the thick tufts of fur on the front legs of the males. Painted Ladies have scalloped hind wings.

Painted Lady eggs look very different from other butterfly eggs. Their eggs are green and have ribs. When the butterfly is coming out of the chrysalis, as the butterfly dries out, a waste fluid is squirted from it's body. In some species such as the Painted Lady the fluid is red.