Introduction
Painted Ladies, scientifically known as Vanessa cardui, are among the butterfly species with the greatest geographic distribution. These insects can be observed on most continents, excluding the Arctica continent. The Painted Lady has a broad range to encompass all of North America, from Alaska to Panama, and has been established in Asia, Africa, and Europe (Wagner and Hoyt 27). Upon the top section of its wings, Vanessa cardui has a color palette that is a soft orange. Its forewings often referred to as the rear wings, contain white patches on their black edges. Lines of black dots are spread throughout the back wings. Such attractive butterflies have bright blue eyespots and pastel brown underbellies. Due to their common presence on various continents, Painted Ladies are frequently observed for scientific reasons, analyzing their habitats, habits, and features. This paper will focus on Vanessa cardui, its background, life cycle, and personal observations. While it might be hard to observe the lives of such butterflies in the wild, home-reared Painted Ladies prove to propagate and grow faster.
Background Information of the Painted Lady Butterfly
The painted Lady butterfly has existed for centuries and has a long history of development and expansion. The first documentation of this species happened in 1758, with the characterization of her features and common locations (Wagner and Hoyt 27). The earliest insects, called Vanessa cardui, were documented by renowned scientist Carl Linnaeus (Wagner and Hoyt 27). Due to the vegetation’s popularity as a feeding source for larvae and mature butterflies, the binomial nomenclature cardui is derived from the Latin carduus, meaning thistle (Wagner and Hoyt 27). Throughout the millennia, the insect has been migrating to new locations and served as a sample for research on butterfly life cycles and efficient propagation conditions.
When it comes to the range and status of Vanessa cardui, the territory in which the butterflies reside involves the Caribbean region and the whole part of western areas of the world. However, the species is not present in continents, such as Arctic areas, with colder climates (Wagner and Hoyt 33). As has been mentioned, the Painted Lady butterfly is among the most common and most migrating insects on the planet. In this sense, the majority of Vanessa cardui populations in North America come from northwest Mexico (Wagner and Hoyt 33). When the conditions are favorable, which is often after a period of heavy rain, sporadic demographic expansions in the south give rise to widespread migrations across North America and the Caribbean (Wagner and Hoyt 33). Northern groups may move south in the autumn, and some may spend the winter in their southern mating area.
As for the characteristics of the Painted Lady butterflies, they are easily recognized due to their colorful features. Painted Lady butterflies are orange-brown, dark patterned, and striped insects with mostly black color on the upper wings, four white dots, and a broader white strip in the black edges of the forewings (Ewert 194). On the back margin of the hindwing, there is a row of five tiny black dots, some of which have blue dots (Ewert 194). The underwings contain a four-eyespot arrangement in black, brown, and grey. The insects usually share such features as a wingspan of 51-73 mm, which is approximately 2.1-2.9 inches (Ewert 194). The butterflies frequently use their dark colors as camouflage.
Moreover, Vanessa cardui have specific habits and habitats that make them differ from other species. Unlike some butterflies that prefer humid areas, Painted Lady specifies are commonly located in regions that are coppiced and exposed or disturbed, such as gardens, former pastures, and beaches. Meadows and grasslands with good lighting and vast areas are preferred by painted lady butterflies (Ewert 195). Nevertheless, the cardui butterflies can be additionally found in wetlands and deserts.
As for other foods that attract the butterflies, Asclepias species and thistles are among the mature species’ food sources; thistles and other legumes are among the caterpillar’s feeding plants. The mature Vanessa cardui feeds primarily on vegetation with complex blooms from the Asteraceae genus. The cardui butterflies prefer Buddleja davidii, also known as summer lilac, due to its nectar, like the majority of insects (Ewert 193). This attractive flower is often planted to entice and further observe the painted lady. Thistle, aster, chrysanthemum, gayfeather, vernonia gigantea, and joe-pye plants are popular suppliers of nectar (Ewert 194). The nettle, peppermint, and hollyhock are some of the plant species that painted lady larvae prefer to eat (Ewert 194). In turn, the caterpillars may consume the foliage after hatching on nettles and thistles, in which the female Painted Lady butterflies prefer to place their eggs (Ewert 193). The larvae conceal themselves in a leaf-made umbrella while they develop into a chrysalis, or, in other words, a cacoon (Ewert 194). The young adults hatch from their pupae in the months of August and September.
Painted Lady Butterfly Life Cycle
The metamorphosis cycle is how insects grow and develop. The given Greek term denotes metamorphosis or physical change of the creatures. In just 28 days, Vanessa cardui may finish their entire life cycle. The first cycle of Painted Lady butterflies is the egg phase. On preferable vegetation, the mature female insect lays her eggs. To ensure that a minimum part of their embryos hatch, females lay several eggs instantaneously. Seafoam green cylinder embryos are placed individually on hosting leaf tissue and take three to five days to grow. Afterward, the larvae that have just hatched will consume this vegetation. The larvae are the following phase, which usually stretches from 12 to 18 days to complete (Bankar et al. 4). During this phase, the caterpillars go through five larval stages, also called instars (Bankar et al. 4). The caterpillar’s task is to continuously consume vegetation in order to grow. The larva breaks its skin as it develops and loses it around four or five times. The food consumed at this age is saved from being used as an adult.
More than a week after instars, after ten days, starts the chrysalis, or cocoon, phase. The term chrysalis is used to describe a butterfly pupa (Ewert 196). The larva turns into a pupa when it has reached adulthood and has stopped feeding. In the caterpillar, special cells remain present, and they are currently dividing quickly. They eventually develop into the mature butterfly’s limbs, wings, antennae, and other features. The nourishment for these developing mature cells will come from many of the initial larval cells (Ewert 196). The last stage is the adult stage, which lasts 14 days in the wild (Bankar et al. 4). Adult insects have a considerably distinct appearance from caterpillars. The larva has a few small eyes and weak antennae; meanwhile, mature creatures have complex eyeballs, long legs, and extended antennae.
Personal Observations
In confined conditions with a mild temperature, the life cycle of the Vanessa cardui took around a month. First, the eggs laid by an adult species found outside took four days to hatch at room temperature. Then, throughout the growth period of the butterflies, the larvae changed their skin four times. The caterpillars required significantly more nourishment as they grew larger with each larval stage. I also observed the spikes on the top of their skin, which were not sharp but rather fuzzy. The pupa stage of the butterflies took a week or seven days. A piece of webbing was spun by the caterpillars, which then fastened their hind end to that piece. It further started to change inside, acquiring the form of the letter J.
The transformation of the cocoon larva into a butterfly required eight days. Light green embryos were placed solitary on the topside of the donor leaf, which the larvae then consumed. Larvae were grayish-brown in color, with numerous golden diagonal lines going along the front and rear of each section. Pupa had golden tips and brownish areas that resembled green in color. Finally, the adult creatures had a wingspan of two inches and a body length of 2.5 inches. Thus, from personal observations, I learned that home-reared butterflies go through the phases and propagate faster.
Conclusion
Hence, although it may be challenging to learn about such butterflies in the wild, the home-raised Painted Ladies prove to mature quicker than average. The painted lady butterfly is an orange-brown, heavily patterned, and striped insect with four white spots, a wider white stripe, and a predominantly black hue on the upper wings. The majority of continents, with the exception of Antarctica, are home to these insects. In terms of foods that draw butterflies, thistles and Asclepias species are among the mature species’ sources, while thistles and other legumes are among the plants that the caterpillar feeds on. The butterfly develops through four life cycle phases, including eggs, larva, pupa, and adulthood. In confined conditions, Vanessa Cardui’s life cycle lasted about a month in small, temperate circumstances. Eggs laid by an adult species found outside took four days to hatch, which was then followed by a 7-day larva stage. The pupa stage, or cocoon phase, took eight days, with the adult creatures having features of two-inch wings and two-and-a-half-inch bodies.
Works Cited
Bankar, Tanuja N., Dar, Mudasir A., Diversity and Radhakrishna S. Pandit. Functions of Chromophores in Insects. Insect Science: Diversity, Conservation and Nutrition, edited by Mohammad M. Shah and Umar Sharif, IntechOpen, 2018.
Ewert, David N. The Natural History of The Bahamas: A Field Guide. Cornell University Press, 2019.
Wagner, David, L. and Hoyt, Alexela. “On Being a Caterpillar: Structure, Function, Ecology, and Behavior.” Caterpillars in the Middle: Tritrophic Interactions in a Changing World, edited by Robert J. Marquis and Suzanne Koptur, Springer International Publishing, 2022.