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It sure is! And please, everyone, keep contributing to this particular thread (which is linked to from the UKB home page). I'll be writing an article that summarises this particular thread in the autumn, when this amazing spectacle is, unfortunately, over. We'll be talking about 2009 for some years to come - no doubt about it. So make the most of it and "get out there"!!!

Cheers,

- Pete

Interesting to see how sporadic the emergences have been; fresh PLs building up over this week so that dozens seen in my local Cambridge cemetery yesterday and today compared to just the odd one a few days ago.

Huge number of PL in Salisbury area today, although I suspect they've been aout a few days but I've not been around to see them or it's not been warm enough. I've just counted ~30 on next door's buddleia.

Bill

Pete Eeles wrote:It sure is! And please, everyone, keep contributing to this particular thread (which is linked to from the UKB home page). I'll be writing an article that summarises this particular thread in the autumn, when this amazing spectacle is, unfortunately, over. We'll be talking about 2009 for some years to come - no doubt about it. So make the most of it and "get out there"!!!

Cheers,

- Pete

Pete,

I've been collating my Painted Lady sightings in date, location and quantity since my first sighting in late May, including all the odd ones and twos. Would this be useful for your report once the summer is over and there are no more to see?

Cheers

Lee

Oh yes.

Also - I'm particularly interested in anyone that can provide evidence of any return migration - to date, this phenomenon seems to be hypothetical and it would be good to prove one way or another, even if only based on anecdotal evidence!

Cheers,

- Pete

Ok, I'll post sightings later in the autumn and keep an eye out for any heading south. I'll be going to the south downs in a couple of weeks and that might be a good place to see any if they are 'heading home'!

Cheers
Lee

about 50 here on buddliah in Mountstewart Gardens, Co Down, Northern ireland. Fast flying, very fresh. Here are a few pics from today:

Is this one ready to egg lay? Its abdomen looks a bit swollen to me:


Two (one on each side of photo):


One feeding (sorry for lightness, very sunny here today):

After a couple of days of poor weather, Painted Lady numbers were down to around 20 in the garden, but today with the sunshine, I had my highest count to date. 60+ in the back garden with another 20ish in the front garden. With them was one very small individual, perfect, just very small. About the same size as a female Gatekeeper. Also three slightly larger and slightly darker ones, who I noticed were not chasing each other about, just feeding up before they moved on.
Could this be second brood butterflies? Denise

Also three slightly larger and slightly darker ones, who I noticed were not chasing each other about, just feeding up before they moved on.
Could this be second brood butterflies?

Could be. I have noticed the darker ones today, could be that the fresh ones look darer but overtime the colour fades as they get older?

Anyway, I still have a pupae of a painted lady caterpillar I found last weekend, seemed a little late to be seeing caterpillars, but here is the pupae:

Denise,

I found this little one in the cemetery near my house yesterday, also not much bigger than a gatekeeper. Not that you can tell from the photo...I guess there are so many a little variation in size is likely? Cheers

Lee

More than ever in my garden today including several very fresh females and males noticeably a little larger than those fresh ones which appeared over a week or so ago.

In all my years observing butterflies, this is the best Painted Lady year by far I can ever remember and there have been good ones in the past.
.

You can really say that it is a good year when you start taking Painted Ladies for granted. Over the last week or so the numbers have steadily mounted for the odd one to a dozen or so at a time. Now a dozen painted ladies or more on the buddleia doesn't even get a second look.

Susie wrote:You can really say that it is a good year when you start taking Painted Ladies for granted. Over the last week or so the numbers have steadily mounted for the odd one to a dozen or so at a time. Now a dozen painted ladies or more on the buddleia doesn't even get a second look.

True, but its not so much the Painted ladies you have to watch for, its the native residents, even though its good to see PLs like this, I have been happier seeing the rise in Small Tortoiseshells here again from seing only a few the past few monthst to seeing over 15 in one small area. But I have been out filming Painted Ladies so I am going to make a video on them and post it on youtube, since I am only filming them and not got any further, anyone have anything they want to see or for me to say on video?

During the last few weeks i have counted up to a dozen PL's at a time in my garden, feeding on marjoram and scabious. Yesterday there was just four in evidence. I have only seen one Red Admiral this year, and fewer Brimstones than last year.

A lot of the Painted Lady I'm seeing now are looking pretty warn. So a theory - since there's been no noticeable migration south, I can only assume that we're going to see another generation - peaking at the end of September / start of October. It'll be time to start looking for larvae again soon

Cheers,

- Pete

Pete Eeles wrote:A lot of the Painted Lady I'm seeing now are looking pretty warn. So a theory - since there's been no noticeable migration south, I can only assume that we're going to see another generation - peaking at the end of September / start of October. It'll be time to start looking for larvae again soon

Cheers,

- Pete

Yeah, I have been thinking the very same thing...one more brood and they will migrate. Is October too late for them to emerge from pupae or is it fine? Sure its fine...plus I have been seeing a few females here ready to egg lay, but a lot of the thistles here are starting to slowly die off, but most of them still are ok and should hold the next generation fine.

Remember they don't need to have thistles. Since it's raining here today I might as well give a partial list of plants I found Painted Lady larvae on in 1996. My complete list is lost somewhere in my non-filing system, but this is what I can remember. Most foodplants fell into one of three botanical families:
1. Composites (Asteraceae)
2. Mallow family (Malvaceae)
3. Borage family (Boraginaceae)
The composites included most thistle species in my area: Creeping T., Spear T., Slender T., Marsh T., Musk T., Cotton T., Welted T., Woolly T., Milk T., (But none found on Meadow T. or Dwarf T., and can't remember if Carline T. used.) Other composites were: Greater and Lesser Burdocks and Yarrow (once only).
Mallows included: Common Mallow, Tree Mallow, Musk Mallow and in gardens Hollyhock, and any cultivar of various tree mallows.
The borage family included: Common Comfrey, Hound's Tongue, Viper's Bugloss, Borage, Green Alkanet.
Other species not in these families were: Stinging Nettle and Tree Lupin. There were also reports of larvae feeding on Runner Beans, and in Germany they were found on Soya-bean.
Can anyone add anything to this list this year?

Misha

Judging by how worn some PL's are looking after only 6 weeks, the English weather obviously plays it's part.

I had 150 PL's yesterday, about 1/4 of them very fresh, could this already be the start of an English second generation.

Gruditch

I think it might be a little early - they're more likely to be stragglers from the first generation.

Cheers,

- Pete

Pete Eeles wrote:I think it might be a little early - they're more likely to be stragglers from the first generation.

Cheers,

- Pete

Well I have seen nothing but what looks like fresh individuals and given the number of caterpillars I have seen here since the PLs arrived here, I can say these are the generation that were hatched here and are now attempting to mate and feed up etc.. And I have seen no worn specimins, so I can thinki that the last of the first generation is over now. It might be a while before we see the next generation from that though.