Painted Lady Butterfly / Stričkovac

Description:

Known as the Painted Lady, or in North America as the Cosmopolitan. This butterfly has a strange pattern of flying in a sort of screw shape. The painted lady uses over 300 recorded host plants according to the HOSTS database.

Habitat:

It is one of the most widespread of all butterflies, found on every continent except Antarctica and South America. Vanessa cardui occurs in any temperate zone, including mountains in the tropics. The species is resident only in warmer areas, but migrates in spring, and sometimes again in autumn. It migrates from North Africa and the Mediterranean to Britain in May and June, but for decades natualists have debated whether the offspring of these immigrants ever make a southwards return migration. Recent research suggests that British painted ladies do undertake an autumn migration.