American Painted Lady on the Trail

As I took the mower along the field trail, I flushed several American Painted Lady Butterflies from the grass.  After I had completed my work, I took the time to examine a few at closer range.  American Painted Ladies have been active for the past few weeks and this ragged individual looks like it’s been around that whole time.

This is what was attracting the butterflies.  American Painted Lady larvae feed on the leaves of Pussytoes, Antennaria species.  I purposely raise the mower deck so the plants on the trail are not unduly stressed by the mowing.  Short growing plants, like the Pussytoes, are not touched by the mower blade.  The mower does remove the flower stalks and this causes the plants to spread even more.  The result is a concentration of Pussytoes on the trail that is greater than anywhere else in the field. 

The dense population of Pussytoes draws in a large crowd of American Painted Ladies.

The females do a quick search to select a suitable site for an egg.  I wonder if part of the search may be to determine if an egg has already been deposited in the area.  Discovery of an egg may cause the female to move on to another location that won’t result in competition between larvae.

A single egg is left behind.  I was able to discover an egg on nearly every plant I examined.

The egg is anchored by the long hairs on the Pussytoe leaf. American Painted Ladies have multiple broods through the summer.  The frequency of butterflies seen now indicates that American Painted Ladies may be super abundant later this summer.  This is a common butterfly that is easy to approach and observe.  I’m glad that it benefits by my trail maintenance activities.

American Painted Lady

The American Painted Lady butterflies are busy laying eggs on the Pussytoe leaves. We’re in the peak of the first of what could be four broods before the end of September. It’s a good thing the Pussytoes are such prolific growers. At the rate females are laying eggs, a slow growing plant could be totally consumed by the number of larvae that will soon be munching the leaves.

Egg laying strategies vary. Many of the females get their heads down to the base of the plant and then turn around and crawl back up the leaf. During the ascent, they will deposit one egg somewhere in the middle or lower part of the leaf.

Other females are more casual and take a land-and-lay approach. Despite the method employed, individual females appear to use the same technique each time they visit a new plant.

The green eggs closely match the leaf color. In some cases the hairs on the leaves appear to have been pulled over the egg. I find a lot of eggs on the leaves, but when I come back later to look for larvae, I have very little luck.

When taking shots of moving butterflies, I try to anticipate the direction of travel and position myself where I can intercept the subject. In this case I was too accurate with my predicted destination. The butterfly came straight at me and chose to visit a plant located between my boot heals. It took some stretching to get twisted around for this shot. Fortunately, after she laid a couple of eggs here, she visited a dozen more plants within a few feet of me.