Flora and Fauna News

Sonoran Desert Edition

Tuesday, Sept. 9^th, 2007
Vol. 10 No. 19

Painted Ladies Winter in the Sonoran Desert
By Michael Plagens Sonoran Desert Sciences
PHOENIX ----- The Painted Lady, Vanessa cardui, is a common butterfly across much of North America, but is normally abundant in the Intermountain West where the caterpillars feed on the leaves and flowers of sage brush, thistles and rabbit bush plus many other kinds of composites (plants in the aster family) plus others. Typically, by summer's end, several generations will have gone through their cycle, and the adult butterflies are abundant in many places. With the arrival of autumn they take flight and migrate hundreds or even thousands of kilometers, from Utah, Idaho, Montana and Alberta to the warmer south. Most winters this butterfly is abundant in desert towns and farms; this year they are here in pretty good numbers already. They find nectar in blooming flowers, lantana being a favorite. The best lantana for butterflies are the 'wild types' that grow rather large and wide if not pruned and bear blue-black berries. Nurseries mostly sell the hybrids often lacking nectar and berries so if you want to cultivate lantana gather some of the ripe berries from plants growing in hedgerows and alleys and plant the seeds. In the spring time the Painted Ladies will lay their eggs on spring composites such as brittle bush and New Mexico thistle and various other plants such as orange fiddleneck. Those offspring will begin the northward journey, following the march of spring. Migrations have distributed the Painted Lady butterfly over most of the world! White-crowned Sparrows PHOENIX ----- White-crowned Sparrows have arrived in urban, agricultural and desert gressland habitats of the Sonoran Desert. They will spend the winter here, then return to the northern States and Canada next spring. Dragonflies Too! PHOENIX ----- Butterflies aren't alone in seeking winter relief in the sunny Southwest. Large dragonflies of the genus Anax and others are also now present in Arizona cites and farms, having recently arrived from as far away as Canada. These migration patterns are still rather mysterious and offer amateur naturalists lots of opportunity to make scientific contributions.	Painted Lady Butterfly (Vanessa cardui) taking nectar from flowers of lantana. Sponsored Links:

Previous Issue

Next Issue

Back to Current News Edition

Back to Sonoran Desert Naturalist Home Page

Flora and Fauna News appears several times
per month and provides current information about the birds, insects and plants
(natural history) living in the Arizona Sonoran Desert.
Copyright Michael J. Plagens, 2008
Send questions or comments to mjplagens@arizonensis.org