Painted Lady (Vanessa cardui)

Photo © Albert Vliegenthart

Family	Nymphalidae
Subfamily	Nymphalinae
Genus	Vanessa
Species	cardui
Authority	(Linnaeus, 1758)
English Name	Painted Lady

European Red List 2010	Least Concern (LC)
EU 27 Red List 2010	Least Concern (LC)
European Red List 2025	Least Concern (LC)
EU 27 Red List 2025	Least Concern (LC)
Habitats Directive
Bern Convention
CITES

Description

The Painted Lady is a visitor from the south, which is difficult to confuse with other butterflies. The black triangle on the tip of the forewing distinguishes it from the proper fritillaries. It is a migrant and cannot survive the winter in temperate climates. Each year, Western Europe is recolonized by butterflies from the south of Spain and Africa. In good years, the Painted Lady can be seen nearly everywhere, but otherwise seems to be absent. It visits a variety of flowers for nectar. The Painted Lady lays its eggs on very different foodplants. It prefers various thistles (Cirsium spp., Carduus spp., and Onopordum spp.), but also uses mallows (Malva spp.) especially in the south, Viper’s Bugloss (Echium vulgare), and Stinging Nettle (Urtica dioica). The eggs are laid singly on the upperside of the leaves. The caterpillars feed in a shelter of loosely spun leaves. They pupate on the foodplant.

Distribution

Albania (Regular Migrant) / Andorra (Regular Migrant) / Austria (Regular Migrant) / Belarus (Regular Migrant) / Belgium (Regular Migrant) / Belgium: Flanders (Regular Migrant) / Belgium: Wallonia (Regular Migrant) / Bosnia and Herzegovina (Regular Migrant) / Bulgaria (Regular Migrant) / Croatia (Regular Migrant) / Cyprus (Regular Migrant) / Czechia (Regular Migrant) / Denmark (Regular Migrant) / Estonia (Regular Migrant) / Finland (Regular Migrant) / France / France: Mainland / France: Corsica / Germany (Regular Migrant) / Greece (Regular Migrant) / Greece: Mainland (Regular Migrant) / Greece: East Aegean Islands (Regular Migrant) / Greece: Kirti (Crete) (Regular Migrant) / Holy See (Vatican City State) (Regular Migrant) / Hungary (Regular Migrant) / Iceland (Regular Migrant) / Ireland (Regular Migrant) / Italy (Regular Migrant) / Italy: Mainland (Regular Migrant) / Italy: Sardinia (Regular Migrant) / Italy: Sicily (Regular Migrant) / Latvia (Regular Migrant) / Liechtenstein (Regular Migrant) / Lithuania (Regular Migrant) / Luxembourg (Regular Migrant) / North Macedonia (Regular Migrant) / Malta / Moldova (Regular Migrant) / Montenegro (Regular Migrant) / Netherlands (Regular Migrant) / Norway (Regular Migrant) / Poland (Regular Migrant) / Portugal / Portugal: Mainland (Regular Migrant) / Portugal: Azores / Portugal: Madeira Islands / Romania (Regular Migrant) / European Russia (Regular Migrant) / San Marino (Regular Migrant) / Serbia (Regular Migrant) / Serbia: Serbia (Regular Migrant) / Serbia: Kosovo (Regular Migrant) / Slovakia (Regular Migrant) / Slovenia (Regular Migrant) / Spain / Spain: Mainland / Spain: Canary Islands / Spain: Balearic Islands (Regular Migrant) / Spain: Sp. North African Territories / Sweden (Regular Migrant) / Switzerland (Regular Migrant) / European Türkiye (Regular Migrant) / Ukraine (Regular Migrant) / United Kingdom (Regular Migrant) / United Kingdom: Great Britain (Regular Migrant) / United Kingdom: Northern Ireland (Regular Migrant) / United Kingdom: Isle of Man (Regular Migrant) / United Kingdom: Guernsey (Regular Migrant) / United Kingdom: Jersey (Regular Migrant) / United Kingdom: Gibraltar /

Larval Foodplants