Eastern Cape - Butterfly Gear

Painted Lady

EASY GARDEN BUTTERFLIES

The Painted LadyVanessa cardui

The Painted Lady is one of the Nymphalidae (Brush-footed Butterflies), subfamily Nymphalinae (Admirals, Pansies etc.).

Its common name is one of the oldest, after the make-up commonly worn by women in the 17th century. Its wing colours resembled the vivid flesh tones used at that time.

Male and female Painted Ladies look alike. They are fast-flying, long-lived butterflies that occur in open country where they frequent hilltops and bright sunny places. You can see them almost everywhere in South Africa, even in arid places like the Desert and Karoo.

Distribution

The Painted Lady is one of the world’s most widespread butterflies. It’s found nearly all over Africa, Europe, North America, and Asia. It’s one of the best-known migratory butterflies, travelling further than the well-known American Monarch over as many as ten generations and 9500km. Vast numbers can be seen flying from south to north in the southern African summer. In North Africa and Eurasia the same thing happens in late spring and summer. Their offspring move in the opposite direction in autumn. We now know that the two populations are in the process of becoming separate species. During August and September there is a window of time in southern Kenya and northern Tanzania, during which stragglers from each wave can meet and produce offspring – which have been shown by geneticists to show signs of being hybrids.

Egg

The female Painted Lady lays her tiny, pale green, barrel-shaped eggs on leaves of the host plant. Laid singly, they are about 0.9mm diameter by 1.4mm high. They are slightly pointed at the top, flattened at the bottom, and have about 20 longitudinal ribs with fine cross-ribs. The egg stage lasts roughly a week but can take longer in cold conditions.

Young Caterpillar

Young Painted Lady caterpillars are spin a silken web underneath leaves to form a shelter in which they hide. They grow from 1.5mm to 10mm over about two weeks and undergo two moults.

Fully-grown larva

Fully-grown Painted Lady caterpillars (larvae) are extremely variable in colour. They can be anything from jet black to sandy brown or yellow with black spines or pink stripes. Although spiny they don’t sting or make you itch. It takes from three to five weeks to become fully grown (28-34mm) over four moults.

Pupa/Chrysalis

The pupa is also variable in colour, from sandy to black, but always has points and edges picked out in gold. The ancient Greeks who coined the word ‘chrysalis’ must have noticed this because the Greek word for gold is ‘Chrysos’. Like all Nymphalidae pupae it is attached to its substrate by its tail. The pupa is 20-25mm long and the adult usually emerges after 2-3 weeks.

Host plants

Their caterpillars feed on many different plants in the Daisy family (Asteraceae) and Mallows (Malvaceae) as well as others. The cosmopolitan weed Spear thistle Cirsium vulgare is probably their favourite. It’s an invasive species here but you don’t need to plant that to give them a home. A local thistle, Berkheya bipinnatifida, is a major host plant. They are very fond of Gazania daisies as well as Namaqua Gousblomme (Arctotis) and other karoo daisies. Another popular host plant is Cheeseweed Malva parviflora, a popular species of Wild Spinach.

How to attract them

Gardeners can promote the presence of this butterfly by cultivating its preferred host plants and creating a sunny, sheltered environment with an abundance of nectar-rich flowers.

Provided you have plenty of nectar plants in your garden, you’re very likely to see them. They love to sit drinking nectar from garden flowers and bask in the sun slowly opening and closing their wings.

African Plain Tiger

EASY GARDEN BUTTERFLIES

The African Plain TigerDanaus chrysippus orientis

The African Plain Tiger is one of the Nymphalidae (Brush-footed Butterflies), subfamily Danainae (Clerics and Tigers). It was originally confused with the famous American butterfly, the Monarch Danaus plexippus, so it was given the name ‘African Monarch’ but in fact it’s a totally different butterfly, even though their caterpillars look similar.

It does look a bit like a Monarch, but it’s smaller (around half the wing area), wingspan 50-75 mm as opposed to 90-100 mm, and its wings lack the black veins. The reason it’s called a ‘Plain Tiger’ is that it’s ‘plain’ orange. In Asia there are other butterflies known as Tigers that have heavy black stripes like the well-known ‘Tigger’ cat does. Our one lacks these so the word ‘plain’ serves to distinguish it from other types of ‘tiger’. It’s a conspicuous insect with a slow, wing-flapping flight at just over head height. Adults often feed on flower nectar. Males have a habit of visiting plants like Ragworts Senecio species or Heliotrope that have been injured and are emitting bitter-tasting herbivore-deterrent chemicals. They ingest the chemicals and use them to create their own predator defences. The bright orange, black, and white markings are a warning to predators that they taste nasty and are to be avoided!