A Painted Lady Butterfly is a common insects of the Rocky Mountains.
The Painted Lady Butterfly is one of the most common butterflies of the Rocky Mountains that you are likely to see. Here are 8 fun nature facts about this beautiful winged insect or butterfly.
The first time I became acquainted with the Painted Lady Butterfly wasn’t out in the mountains or woods. I learned about this butterfly when visiting my son’s preschool class and seeing the butterfly chrysalis that they had in their classroom. A few days later it was his turn to bring that chrysalis home. While at our house, we were lucky enough to see the butterflies emerge. It was such a special moment to share with my family and left a lasting impression on me of the Painted Lady Butterfly.
8 Painted Lady Butterfly Facts
The Painted Lady butterfly is one of the most common butterflies of the Rocky Mountains. In fact, this is one of the most widespread butterflies in the world!
This resilient butterfly lives in most habitats, but is most frequently found in meadows.
This tiny insect is one of the many animals that migrates south to survive the cold, harsh winters of the Rocky Mountains. Surprisingly, this little butterfly flies south, spending the winter around the deserts of the US/Mexico border. Then in the spring it flies back north to spend the summer in the Rockies.
Somehow these butterflies are able to fly fast and far. They can fly up to 100 miles in a day and gain speeds as fast as 30 mph!
The adult butterflies like Thistle.
This butterfly is about 2 inches large. It is mainly orange on the top of its wings with black markings. The outer tips of the wings are black with white spots.
As you can see from my personal experience with my son this is a common butterfly used in butterfly farms or gardens. They live at farms in the tropics, where they are caught and shipped in their chrysalis form. If you recall the chrysalis is part of the butterfly lifecycle as it undergoes metamorphosis from a caterpillar to an adult. This is how my son’s class had the fortune of experiencing a few emerging from their chrysalis.
This insect goes through its entire lifecycle, from an egg to caterpillar to a winged adult in a month! Yes, as hard as that is to believe, it’s true! During that month, it is only a butterfly for about two weeks.
Wow. Look at that proboscis.
The adult drinks nectar from flowers using its proboscis. The proboscis is like a long tongue that it keeps curled up inside of its mouth.