Royal Alberta Museum: Collections and Research: Invertebrate Zoology: Fact Sheets

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Fact Sheets: Keeping Live Invertebrates

Painted Lady Butterfly
Vanessa cardui
DISTRIBUTION: The Painted Lady butterfly occurs throughout most of North and South America, Europe, Asia and into Africa. They are not known to overwinter in Alberta and populations here are the result of immigration from the Southern U.S.
HABITAT: The larvae will feed on a wide range of plants, such as thistles, borage, mallows and peas. The adults will visit thistles, alfalfa, clovers and various garden plants.

Painted Lady butterflies are great teaching tools for biology classes

BACKGROUND INFORMATION: When conditions are favourable, enormous population build up in Southern U.S. resulting in northward migrations. During peak years, the Painted Lady can become one of the most common butterflies of Alberta. This is an ideal species to keep to study complete metamorphosis.
OBTAINING A CULTURE: A culture of live Painted Lady butterfly larvae can be purchased through companies such as Northwest Scientific Supply Ltd. (For more information, send an e-mail to info@nwscience.com, containing the words request butterfly in the body of the message). The culture will come with all the required equipment, food and instructions. A flight cage is also available for the adults.
REACHING MATURITY:

The larvae, or caterpillars, will feed on plants and become bigger until they are ready to pupate.
They will form a chrysalis in which they will undergo the transformation from caterpillar to butterfly.
They will then emerge as adults.

DISPOSING OF THE ADULTS: Remember that eventually you will have adult butterflies that will be very difficult if not impossible to feed. What you will do with them depends on the time of the year and where you live.

Adults that emerge during the summer months may be simply released into the wild.
If you live near a butterfly house they may be willing to take any adults that emerge during the colder months.
It is probably best to research this is prior to buying these butterflies.

For more information on butterflies, take a look at Butterflies North and South, a virtual exhibit hosted by the Canadian Heritage Information Network (CHIN), and produced by CHIN in partnership with Royal Alberta Museum and museums in Canada and Peru.