Butterfly of the Month - June 2024
The Australian Painted Lady (Vanessa kershawi) has a wingspan of 43mm (male) and 47mm (female). It is one of the common butterflies in Australia spreading across a large part of the continent.
The butterfly starts its life cycle as a roundish egg, decorated with intricate vertical ridges. It is laid singly on a leaf of the host plant. After hatching, the larva uses silk to create a leaf shelter in which it stays during the day as feeding happens during the night. The shelter grows with the instar stages. Pupation eventually happens under a lot of woven protection. The resulting pupa hangs head down from the plant or a nearby object (connected via the cremaster, a hook-like structure affixed to a silken button).
The body colour of the larva can vary in the early instar stages between brown and lighter tones, but there are always white or beige lines running the length of the body, and little branched spikes appear on each segment. The pupa may also occur in different colours. While often brown, but it may show itself lighter, like in our image, often featuring shimmers of gold or other shiny tones.
The wings of the adult are very attractive not least due to their striking patterns. While on the upper side of fore and hindwings a brown base colour and large orange and some smaller white markings stand out, the underside shows similar forewing patterns, albeit a little paler. However, the hindwing differs substantially. Elaborate patterns made up with small brown, beige and yellowish patches dominate.
Adults are known for their somewhat rapid flight pattern. The Australian Painted Lady is a low flying butterfly, settling often on the ground, or on low plants when searching for nectar. It is known to be strongly migratory in NSW, however, in our subtropical region of SEQ no obvious pattern of migration can be observed.
In Brisbane the native larval host plants are Yellow Buttons (Chrysocephalum apiculatum) and Paper Daisy (Xerochrysum bracteatum).
Images:
DM – Deborah Metters; SA – Sylvia Alexander; SG – Simon Grove, TMAG ; SH-RF – Simon Hinkley and Ross Field, Museum Victoria, CC-BY NC
