"What's her name?" The
painted lady who always came in late, tripping into the room with a prepared smile as though she came out upon a stage, might well have quailed before Mrs.
Painted lady takes time out This snap of a
painted lady butterfly on flowers was taken by Catriona Thomson in the garden of her house in Killearn.
Millions of
painted lady butterflies arrive from mainland Europe, the progeny of insects which left tropical Africa earlier in the year.
Butterfly Conservation vice-president and wildlife broadcaster Chris Packham, who visited the RSPB at Lochwinnoch last year, is calling on nature lovers to take part in the Big Butterfly Count over the next three weeks to help reveal if we are experiencing a
Painted Lady year.
Our winters are too cold for
Painted Lady eggs to survive, so in a few weeks, the latest hatch of butterflies will make the inter-generational trip in reverse, flying at 500 metres altitude.
By far the most common are the gloriously colourful peacocks and our wild growing buddleia bush is alive with these magnificent creatures, and joining them in their quest for nectar were some brightly coloured
painted lady's.
Surely nobody has failed to witness the flood of millions of
painted lady butterflies.
How To Spot A
Painted Lady Butterfly Pale orange background colour to the upper wings.
Hundreds of thousands of
painted lady butterflies have put on a show, blanketing flowers in the wild and in gardens.
Unusually high numbers of the
painted lady migratory butterfly have flown into Britain from continental Europe over the last six weeks and, with their offspring now hatching, nature lovers have recorded the greatest influx of butterflies for a decade.
Alex Lister, Druridge Bay Living Landscape manager based atNorthumberlandWildlife Trust's Hauxley nature reserve, said:" There were about 500
painted lady butterflies even before I got out of the car at Hauxley.
The UK could be experiencing a once-in-a-decade wildlife phenomenon this year with a mass influx of
painted lady butterflies, experts have said.