Vanessa cardui or Painted Lady

The Vanessa cardui or Painted Lady of the family Nymphalidae is one of the most widespread butterflies. Although the Vanesa de los cardos can be found on almost every continent, except Antarctica and South America, we were still very pleased to sight one on our own terrain a few weeks ago. Today we saw a few on the track of the almond orchards of Los Riscos. Apart from this ´Cosmopolitan´, as it is sometimes called in North America, we saw many other types of butterflies flying around on this sunny autumn day. The Vanessa cardui, like most other butterflies we sighted, were especially attracted by the stink aster which is still in flower. The Painted Lady is resident only in warmer areas. It migrates in spring, and sometimes again in autumn. It is able to travel large distances as it is known to migrate from North Africa to for example Great Britain or the Netherlands. The migration of birds has so far been monitored better than the migration of butterflies. In various articles different starting points are mentioned; the Atlas Mountains in Morroco, Tunesia and the Mediterranean in general.
PS On the 5th of May 2011 we saw a large number of Painted Ladies on the finca.





Related links:
- Website Butterfly Conservation: Millions of Painted Lady butterflies are now arriving in Britain, after an amazing 1000 mile migration from North Africa.

Related key words: migratory butterfly, mariposa migratoria, trekvlinder, distelvlinder, schoenlapper, aurelia, vanesse du chardon, vanesse des chardons, belle dame, distelfalter, edelfalter, ninfálidos, nymphalidés, Alpujarras, Sierra Nevada, wandelen, wandelingen, trektocht, standplaats vakantie, hiking, trekking, Berchules, B&B, hotel, wanderungen