Spiderbloggers

I have always intended to learn butterflies - along with everything else. Anyone got any idea on this one. It is common - but I dont think it is the Wanderer - or do they vary a lot?

That's either the Australian Painted Lady .. Vanessa kershawi. or Painted Lady Vanessa cardui, whichis a very common garden butterfly around Geelong. You need to see the spots on the hind wing to know the difference. V.kershawii has blue dot in the centre of the black spots on the back of the hind wings ... V. cardui has whitish centres. They feed on Helichrysum, among other natives, but also on introduced Capeweed and Scotch thistle.

Thank you so much. I am started on butterflies! Only a few thousand to go. Judging by the number in the garden at teh moment, 'common' would be the definitive term! Am I right that the photo below shows the spots you are referring to for Painted Lady, Vanessa cardui? I can add Salvia (as in the photo) to the favourite foods. The salvias are covered in them every day. Thank you! I am chuffed - I can now name a butterfly!

Yep ... V. cardui it is. Salvia is known around here as 'butterfly bush'. If you want butterflies in your garden ... get some. The food plants I was referring to are the larval food ... what the caterpillars eat. Adults will eat anything sweet, even sugar and water in a plastic flower

I am used to Buddleia being butterfly bush. I had a few, but they didn't attract butterflies like the salvia do. I have always had some salvias, but mixed among the pelargoniums, which wasn't very smart given the salvias need a lot more water. So the salvias are now all together in one huge bed which is ablaze with red and purple at the moment, and covered in butterflies. What do the larvae look like?

I have always had some salvias because the Eastern spinebills like them so much. And I am inordinately fond of Eastern spinebills. Outside the two acres fenced off for the garden - mostly orchard and vegie gardens, the rest of the 18 acres is all natural bush. So the Painted Ladys have no shortage of host plants.

Ooops ... steered you wrong. Got my kershawis and carduis mixed. You have kershawi there.

Here's a link to Don's Lepidoptera Larvae site

http://lepidoptera.butterflyhouse.com.a ... kersh.html

Amazing how much it looks like an American Lady.

Thanks heaps for that site. I love watching them now that I have a name. One down, how many to go? There's a white one with them on the salvia. I'll try and photograph it.

Thanks for your photo, Nikki. What is it about that patterning that has led to so many species having variations of it? Is yours the same genus?

It would be so easy to get hooked on butterflies - and every other invertebrate group - but I still know so few spider species! What an awesome world we live in at the macro scale!