In the Horniman Museum Gardens earlier today and a brightly coloured butterfly caught my eye as it visited a low dandelion flower.
In the Horniman Museum Gardens earlier today and a brightly coloured butterfly caught my eye as it visited a low dandelion flower. I skulk up to it and discover a painted lady, Cynthia cardui. This is only the third I have seen this year.
A native of North Africa and Southern Europe, it migrates north each year with the good weather, establishes new breeding colonies and the local offspring move north again. It reaches the UK most years, and sometimes in spectacular numbers; 2005 and 2006 were good years, at least in southern England.
The thing that caught my attention with this one was its size - it was tiny. Usually a large brightly coloured species to rival the closely related red admiral, Vanessa atalanta, and the peacock, Inachis io, its wingspan is quoted as up to 75 mm across. Even though I caught the diminutive Horniman specimen in my hands, it is virtually impossible to judge insect size with any degree of accuracy unless you have a ruler to hand. I guess its span was something in the region of 50 to 55 mm.
In insects, small size is sometimes attributed to poor nutrition during the larval stage. Since painted lady caterpillars feed on thistles, food shortage seems unlikely...unless, perhaps, the recent poor weather meant that its feeding was curtailed. Wild speculation?
