Painted
Lady Vanessa cardui (Linnaeus, 1758)  |
Status
.....Occurs purely as a migrant here in varying
numbers, with occasional Spring influxes of enormous proportions and
involving millions of individual Painted Ladies. There have been two
such invasions in the past few years, with many remembering the first of
these back in 1996. It was of a larger scale than a similar event in
2009 and was an astounding experience for those lucky enough to witness
it.
Most years, the Painted Lady is less frequent than the Red Admiral and there are
considerably fewer individual records from the county as a result. It is a butterfly which will be found in any habitat
throughout the county, in those years when it occurs. |
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| Photographed at Warsop Main
Pit Top August 2009 |
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| Photographed
at Eakring Meadows July 2003 |
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Early stages |
| Half-grown larva on Creeping Thistle
Cirsium arvense. Photographed at Red Hill (Eakring) July 2025. |
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| Full-grown larva (pale form)
on Creeping Thistle
Cirsium arvense. Photographed at Red Hill (Eakring) July 2025. |
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| Final instar larva (just
moulted) on Spear Thistle
Cirsium vulgare. Photographed at Eakring Flash June 2003. |
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| Full grown larva in larval
tent on Spear Thistle Cirsium vulgare. Photographed at Eakring
Flash June 2003. |
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