Australian Painted Lady Butterfly

Facts about Australian Painted Lady Butterfly, "Scientific name for Australian Painted Lady Butterfly is Vanessa kershawi". Australian Painted Lady Butterfly is a Vanessa type butterfly that belongs to the Nymphalidae family. The Australian Painted Lady Butterfly are native to Australia even though westerly winds have isolated them to the eastern islands of Australia, as well as New Zealand. During the spring season, a large number of the Australian Painted Lady Butterfly will migrate to the southern states from the northern states of New South Wales and Queensland. With the intention of finding the mates, male Australian Painted Lady butterflies display territorial behavior, which entails a male butterfly perching on plants in a sunlit spot on a peak, lingering for female butterflies to fly by. In spite of urbanization and enveloping plants changing the home of the Australian Painted Lady butterfly, their populations have not been considerably influenced by these changes.

Features

The Australian Painted Lady Butterfly is a small size butterfly, seldom more than 2 inches (5 cm) diagonally to its wings, and the blue tint in the middle of the four eyespots on its back wings. The Australian Painted Lady Butterfly have a dark brown color body, more or less black, all over, but the tilts of the antenna which are white in color. The bottom of the wings is brown in color, which turn out to be brick red in color, broken by black color bands. The tip is black in color, with four white color dots running from the top of the wing, and a white-colored bar widening from the leading edge of their forewing. The back wings have four circular eyespots at the bottom, with a blue color center for at least three. The underwings of the Australian Painted Lady Butterfly are virtually identical to their upper wings, except the bottom of the under-wings is brick red in color rather than brown color.

The coloration of the Australian Painted Lady Butterfly enables it to coordinate efficiently with the ground. Both male and female Australian Painted Lady Butterfly appear almost alike. The barrel-shaped ovum is transparent green in color, with 13 to 15 upright ribs. The grey-colored body and the black-colored head of the larva appear through the crust right before hatching. The larva has grey with light yellow color lines along both sides of its body, and they have yellow color dots, and rows of divided spines covering their body. The head of the larva is usually black or brown in color, and the caterpillar develops to about 1/8 inches (3 cm) in body length. The pupa is brown in color with darker marks, and four pairs of gold or metallic silver dots.

Diet

The Australian Painted Lady Butterfly mostly feeds on the nectar of flowers and other variety of food plants. They also feed on numerous introduced varieties, as well as Capeweed, Scotch Thistle and Lavender.

Behavior

The mating system of the Australian Painted Lady Butterfly evolved because of a highly scattered female population. Food and ovipositor locations are copious as female Australian Painted Lady Butterfly feed on an extensive variety of host plants. Consequently, female butterflies do not group around the hotspots of reserves. This propensity makes it unfeasible for a male butterfly to defend the whole of the range of a female butterfly. So, the best plan for male Australian Painted Lady Butterfly is to protect a territory in which female butterflies are probable to travel. Generally, female butterflies will visit male territories only when they are accessible for copulating. However, when a plentiful food resource attracts a considerable number of female Australian Painted Lady Butterfly, male butterflies will no longer display territoriality and will be looking for mates in regions where females are grouped.

Australian Painted Lady Butterfly are insects. A Australian Painted Lady Butterfly is a herbivore; Meaning that as a caterpillar its first food is its own eggshell and than it will eat the leaves of the plant on which it is hatched. When it becomes a butterfly, it will feed mostly on nectar from flowers, rotting fruit and water with a "proboscis" - a long narrow tube in their mouth that looks like a straw.

Life cycle of a Australian Painted Lady Butterfly comes in four stages, egg, larva "caterpillars", pupa "chrysalis" and adult Butterfly.
A Australian Painted Lady Butterfly will attach its eggs to leaves with a special glue.

When caterpillars become fully grown they will attach to an appropriate leaf or small branch, than they will shed the outside layer of their skin and a hard skin underneath known as a "chrysalis" will be their new look
An adult Australian Painted Lady Butterfly will come out from the "chrysalis" than it waits a few hours for its wings to dry and fill with blood, before it takes its first flight.

Australian Painted Lady Butterfly can see yellow, green, and red. An adult butterfly average life span is from a week to a year
The top flight speed of a Australian Painted Lady Butterfly is 12 miles per hour (19 Km/ph) and some moths can fly up to 25 miles per hour (40 Km/ph).
A Australian Painted Lady Butterfly is cold-blooded, which means the body temperature is not regulated on its own. A Butterfly can't fly or eat if their body temperature is below 82 degrees fah (28 cel). Australian Painted Lady Butterfly are often basking in the sun with their wings open to gain heat and than the veins in the wings carry the heat to the body.
A Australian Painted Lady Butterfly has sense organ, on their feet or tarsi, for tasting
The estimate is between 15000 and 20000 different species of butterfly.

A Australian Painted Lady Butterfly has a small body, made up of three parts – the head, abdomen and thorax. A Australian Painted Lady Butterfly has two large eyes, which are made up of many small parts which are called "compound eyes".
A Australian Painted Lady Butterfly has two antenna's on the top of their heads, which they use to smell, hear and feel. A butterfly’s mouth is a long tube a "proboscis" - a long narrow tube in their mouth that looks like a straw when its done eating, it rolls the tube back up.

A Australian Painted Lady Butterfly has three pairs of legs and their feet have little claws that help them stand on flowers. The Australian Painted Lady Butterfly wings are made up of hard tubes that are covered with a thin tissue. The Australian Painted Lady Butterfly wings are covered with fine dusty like scales. A Australian Painted Lady Butterfly has four brightly colored wings having distinctive patterns made up of tiny scales. The bright patterns scales sometimes have hidden ultraviolet patterns for attracting mates. The bright colors are also used as camouflage to hide them or scare off predictors.