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Australian Painted Lady

Vanessa kershawi

Description:

About 25mm long several of these were munching on a tall, hirsute, leafy plant which had small white and yellow daisy-like flowers last year.

Habitat:

Suburban back yard with many and varied grasses.

Notes:

Going with Vanessa kershawi host plant ID's as Ammobium alatum, an important food source for this butterfly, and pictures added (#5). Just as the Painted Lady has been seen in Western Australia and suspected to have been blown there, the islands to the east of Australia have the Australian Painted Lady, also suspected to have been blown there. Perhaps even more interesting is the migration to Macquarie Island. "Transoceanic migration of four species of macrolepidoptera to subantarctic Macquarie Island has been detected in 7 out of 33 years during the period 1962-96 and is restricted to spring and autumn. Analyses of synoptic charts during the migration period show that autumn immigrants originated from New Zealand and comprised a single species of noctuid moth, Agrotis ipsilon (Walker). Spring immigrants originated from Australia and comprised two noctuids, Dasypodia selenophora Guenée and Persectania ewingii Westwood and a butterfly, Vanessa kershawi (McCoy). Autumn migrations were associated with depressions in the southern Tasman Sea. Spring migrations were associated with the eastward passage of prefrontal airflows ahead of cold fronts which extended from southern Australia to the west of Macquarie Island. In an analysis of one of these events, winds exceeded 30 ms-1 at 300 m altitude and could have transported migrants from Tasmania to Macquarie Island overnight in less than 10 h. Flight activity was assisted by the presence of a nocturnal temperature inversion that maintained upper air temperatures above 5 ⚬C. The effect of potential global warming on the migration and colonization of Macquarie Island by insects is discussed." - Penelope Greenslade, Roger A. Farrow and Jeremy M. B. Smith Journal of Biogeography Vol. 26, No. 6 (Nov., 1999)

2 Species ID Suggestions

MartinL
MartinL 11 years ago
Painted lady (butterfly larva)
Vanessa.cardui Vanessa cardui
MartinL
MartinL 11 years ago
Australian painted lady
Vanessa kershawi Nymphalidae Family


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3 Comments

MartinL
MartinL 11 years ago

I'd revise my ID suggestion to V. kershawi. The Australian painted lady is a very similar but different species. The European (and African) painted lady V. cardui occurs around Perth. They possibly migrated (flew across the ocean) from Africa and established a population in the south west. They will be simple and fun to grow out in captivity for a possible photo of a pupa or an emerging butterfly.

Mark Ridgway
Mark Ridgway 11 years ago

checking for Ammobium alatum....

Mark Ridgway
Mark Ridgway 11 years ago

Excellent thanks martin. That looks perfect. I wasn't looking forward to tracking this one down.

Mark Ridgway
Spotted by
Mark Ridgway

Melbourne, Victoria, Australia

Spotted on Sep 3, 2012
Submitted on Sep 3, 2012

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