Painted Lady Butterfly on Purple Buddleia

by Karen Adams

Title

Painted Lady Butterfly on Purple Buddleia

Artist

Karen Adams

Medium

Photograph - Fine Art Digital Prints - Photography

Description

To my great delight, October is a magical month in Ohio for butterflies! The days are cool, but as the sun rises and the bright sunshine warms the earth, the crisp blue sky becomes filled with fluttering beauties. I go out into my backyard and have butterflies in every part of my garden. They circle my head and fly close enough I can feel the wind of their wings flapping. I keep hoping one will decide to land on me, but so far, that remains a hope!

On this day, there were ten to twelve Monarchs, several Cabbage Whites, a Sulphur and many skippers keeping company with this beautiful Painted Lady. I tend to focus on the Painted Ladies since they are a bit more unusual in my yard. I sure had fun chasing this one around!

This is the ventral view of a Painted Lady (Vanessa cardui) I was actually surprised to read on the Web site Butterflies & Moths of North America (BAMONA) that this butterfly is found on all continents except Australia and Antarctica! Painted Ladies migrate from the deserts of northern Mexico and temporarily colonizes the United States and Canada south of the Arctic. Occasionally, population explosions in Mexico will cause massive northward migrations.

The Painted Lady is also known as the Thistle Butterfly because of the caterpillars' food preference. I am not sure if my neighbors appreciate my willingness to allow thistle to grow among my wildflowers for just this reason! They are also referred to as the Cosmopolitan because it is the most widely distributed butterfly in the world.

If you are lucky enough to have room to let an area of your space be filled with wildflowers, you will be helping many small creatures to remain on this Earth . . . and you will enjoy the pleasure of their company!

I really appreciate you taking time to look at my artwork. Thank you so much!

I am very concerned with our environment and have decided to donate any money I make from any sales of this image to the ENVIRONMENTAL DEFENSE FUND.....because the Earth needs a good lawyer! We all need to speak up and support efforts to protect our environment. We will not get a second chance!


**The watermark stamp will not appear on any purchased items. All images are protected by copyright law and cannot be reproduced in any form without the express written consent of the artist.**

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October 18th, 2018

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