Painted Lady butterflies arrive from Southern Europe and North Africa each summer and this is one of the first to be spotted in 2021 by butterfly enthusiast, Alan Watts.
Photo: Alan Watts
The eggs are laid on thistles for preference but also nettles or mallows. The butterflies breed and thrive in the summer but are completely killed off in a British winter and we have to wait for the next immigrants to arrive the following year.
It is amazing (and I hesitate to use this over-used adjective carelessly) that such flimsy-looking creatures can fly so far.
Sometimes there are only a few but in some years, such as 2009, there are millions.
If you have read 'Wilding' by Isabella Tree about the farm at Knepp in Sussex where they decided to let nature take control, you will recall how their acres of invasive, three foot high creeping thistle were destroyed by the 2009 invasion of Painted Ladies.
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