Painted Lady Butterfly (Vanessa cardui): Facts and Migration

What does a painted lady look like?

From above, the painted lady is a warm orange or salmon-pink butterfly with black blotches. The tips of the forewings are black with a row of white spots and a short white bar. The hindwings carry a row of small black dots near the edge.

The underside is very different. The forewing underside repeats the orange and black pattern in paler shades, but the hindwing is marbled in gray, brown, olive and white, with a row of four or five small eyespots. When the butterfly rests with its wings closed, this pattern helps it blend into dry ground and dead plants.

Males and females look alike. Like other members of the brush-footed butterfly family, Nymphalidae, the painted lady walks on four legs: its short front pair is held folded against the body and is used mainly for sensing, not walking.

Painted lady look-alikes

In Europe, the red admiral (Vanessa atalanta) is a close relative, but it is velvety black with bright red bands. In North America, the American lady (Vanessa virginiensis) is very similar; on the hindwing underside it has two large eyespots, while the painted lady has four or five small ones. The West Coast lady (Vanessa annabella) of western North America has blue centers to its upper hindwing spots.

The monarch is also orange and black but much bigger, with thick black veins. You can compare the two in our monarch butterfly profile, and see how butterflies differ from their relatives in butterfly vs moth.

How big is a painted lady?

The painted lady is a medium-sized butterfly. Its wingspan is about 5–7.5 cm (2–3 in) and its body is around 2–2.5 cm (0.8–1 in) long. Like most butterflies, it weighs only a fraction of a gram.

Butterflies that develop in hot, dry conditions or on poor food plants are often smaller than average, so size varies from year to year and place to place.

Habitat and range

Painted ladies like warm, open and sunny places. They breed and feed in meadows, field margins, coastal dunes, steppe, savanna, semi-desert, mountain slopes, roadsides and gardens. Migrants can turn up almost anywhere, including city parks and high mountain passes.

The species ranges across Europe, Africa, Asia and North and Central America. In Europe migrants regularly reach Scandinavia and Iceland. In Australia it is found only in a small area of Western Australia, around Fremantle and Rottnest Island, where its relative the Australian painted lady (Vanessa kershawi) is far more common. In South America it is rare.

A key fact about the painted lady is that it cannot survive a cold winter in any stage of its life. It does not hibernate. Instead, it keeps breeding all year by moving between regions as the seasons change.

Migration: a relay between Africa and Europe

The painted lady makes one of the longest known insect migrations. Each spring, butterflies move north from North Africa and the Mediterranean into Europe, reaching Britain, Scandinavia and sometimes Iceland. Their offspring breed in Europe over the summer, and in autumn a new generation flies south again.

Research by Spanish and British scientists, using radar, citizen science records and chemical markers in the wings, has shown that the whole yearly circuit covers roughly 12,000–15,000 km (7,500–9,300 mi). It is a relay of up to about six generations, so no individual makes the full trip. A 2018 study of wing chemistry confirmed that many butterflies arriving around the Mediterranean in February and March were born south of the Sahara, completing the circle.

Migrants often fly hundreds of meters above the ground, choosing days with helpful winds, which is why the autumn return went unnoticed for so long. In 2024 scientists reported painted ladies found on a beach in French Guiana that had crossed the Atlantic from West Africa, a flight of at least 4,200 km (2,600 mi) that was only possible with the help of trade winds.

The full story of the route, the generations involved and how the butterflies navigate is in how far do painted ladies migrate?

North American painted ladies

In North America painted ladies spend the winter in the deserts of the southwestern United States and northern Mexico. In spring, butterflies move north and north-west, and some reach Canada. After wet winters, when desert plants grow well, numbers explode. In March 2019, after heavy rain, many millions streamed across Southern California, a spectacle that made national news.

What do painted ladies eat?

Painted lady caterpillars are among the least fussy butterfly larvae in the world. More than 300 food plants have been recorded. Thistles are the classic choice, which is why the species is called cardui, “of the thistle”, and why it is sometimes known as the thistle butterfly. Mallows, burdock, knapweeds, hollyhocks, nettles and some legumes are also used.

Adult painted ladies feed by sipping nectar through a long, coiled tongue called a proboscis. They visit many flowers, including thistles, knapweeds, asters, clover, lavender and buddleia. They also drink honeydew, the sweet liquid produced by aphids. For more on how butterflies feed, see what do butterflies eat?

Females seem to choose egg-laying sites partly by the flowers available for adults. They test plants with taste sensors on their feet before laying, a remarkable sense explained in do butterflies taste with their feet?

Life cycle

The painted lady goes through complete metamorphosis: egg, caterpillar, chrysalis and adult. Development is fast, which allows several generations a year.

1. Egg. The female lays pale green, barrel-shaped eggs one at a time on the upper side of leaves. They hatch in about 3–5 days in warm weather.
2. Caterpillar. The spiny, dark caterpillar with pale stripes lives inside a loose tent of silk and leaves, which hides it from birds, wasps and spiders. It feeds and grows for roughly two to three weeks, molting several times.
3. Chrysalis. The caterpillar hangs head-down and forms a gray-brown chrysalis, often with gold spots. The adult emerges after about 7–11 days.
4. Adult. The new butterfly usually lives two to four weeks. Many begin migrating soon after emerging.

Because the cycle is so short and painted ladies are easy to raise, they are among the butterflies most often reared in classrooms around the world.

Behavior

Painted ladies are fast, strong fliers. They often rest on bare ground or low plants, basking with their wings open to warm up. On cool or cloudy days they settle in small hollows in the ground.

Males are territorial in a loose way. In the afternoon a male perches on a hilltop, track or forest edge where females are likely to pass, and chases other butterflies that come near. If the intruder is a female painted lady, he follows her to court her.

Painted lady eyes are sensitive to ultraviolet, blue and green light. Unlike the monarch, they lack red-sensitive receptors, so they probably cannot tell red from orange.

Boom years and population

Painted lady numbers swing wildly from year to year. In good years, when rain in North Africa or the Middle East has produced lush plant growth, huge waves of migrants pour north. Famous boom years in Europe include 1996, 2009 and 2019. In March 2019 an estimated one billion painted ladies passed through Israel, and the same year saw a vast influx in Britain and much of Europe.

In poor years the species can be scarce. These swings are natural and tied to rainfall and food plant growth across its huge range.

Conservation status

The painted lady is listed as Least Concern on the IUCN Red List. It has an enormous range, uses many common food plants, including weeds of farmland and waste ground, and can recover quickly after poor years.

Like other insects, it can still be affected by pesticide use, loss of wildflower-rich grassland and changes in climate that alter rainfall in its breeding areas. Long-term monitoring schemes in Europe and North America help scientists track these changes.

Painted ladies and people

Painted ladies are welcome visitors to gardens, where they feed on many common flowers. They are bred in large numbers for school projects and are also used in butterfly releases at events, a practice some scientists discourage because released butterflies may spread disease or mix with wild populations.

Their migrations have become a favorite subject of citizen science. Volunteers across Europe, Africa and North America record sightings, and their reports have helped scientists piece together one of the most remarkable journeys in the insect world.

Myths and facts

Myth: Painted ladies hibernate in Europe. Fact: The painted lady cannot survive winter in cold climates in any stage. The butterflies seen in Europe each year are migrants or the offspring of migrants.

Myth: Each butterfly flies from Africa to Europe and back. Fact: The round trip is a relay. Each adult lives only a few weeks, and the full journey takes about six generations.

Myth: Painted ladies and monarchs are the same. Fact: They are different species. Painted ladies are smaller, with blotchy rather than black-veined wings, and they are not poisonous to birds in the way monarchs can be.