Australian Painted Lady

Order Lepidoptera

The Australian Painted Lady butterflies belong to the species Kershawi (Australian Painted Lady) and the Order Lepidoptera . They have pale brown underwings and an orange and brown pattern on their upper wings. Painted Ladies are found throughout the world and have a strong migratory nature. They have extremely fragile wings, thus they are sometimes found with rather ragged looking ones. During breeding the butterflies can travel thousands of kilometres to their breeding grounds and often damage their wings in the process. The average wingspan of the Painted Lady is 60mm. In Australia the butterflies can be seen all year round and they will land frequently on the ground or on flowers.

Australian Painted Lady caterpillars

The Australian Painted Lady caterpillars are brown or greenish in colour with a pale yellow stripe running along each side of its body. The caterpillar also has rows of branched spines along its entire body.

Its Favorite Food

The caterpillars can be found hiding during the day in a shelter made from a curled leaf. At night the caterpillar will come out to feed. The native everlasting daisy or capeweed are its favourite plants to fed on.