The Four Stages of the Painted Lady

My zoology book, "Flying Creatures of the Fifth Day", had an assignment to raise some butterflies. So we got on the web and Mama found a place to order butterflies called Butterflies and Blueberries. We ordered the kit with 5-8 caterpillars to raise to adulthood.

When our kit arrived, there were 7 caterpillars in a tiny plastic cup with some food. They were about 1/4 inch long when they came in the mail. Three days went by and then they were all about 5/8" long. The instructions said that when they were all that big, we should move them to another container, and give them some new food that was supplied by the kit. After a few days, I was looking at them, and looked at the lid of the cup. One was hanging. He was about ready to make a chrysalis. The next morning he was in a chrysalis, and two more caterpillars were hanging. One by one they all formed chrysalis.

About a week later I got up and something amazing had happened. There was a butterfly sitting in the container. We rushed out to the shop and got a giant aquarium to put them in. In three days all of the butterflies had hatched. The last one hatched the third day.

We were going to release them, but it was too cold outside, so we kept them and decided to try to get them to lay eggs so we could see the whole cycle again.

We put thistles in there for them to lay eggs on. Painted Lady caterpillars like to eat thistles. Two of the butterflies laid eggs, and maybe those eggs will hatch.

The Four Stages of the Painted Lady Butterfly

The first stage of a butterfly is eggs. On a bright spring morning, Mrs. Butterfly went over to lay eggs on the thistle plants. When the eggs are first laid, they are green. You can click on the photo to see it close up.


After a couple days, Mr. and Mrs. Painted Lady's egg turns gray. When it turns gray that means it is almost ready to hatch. After the eggs are laid it will take 3 - 5 days before they hatch.


The second stage is the larva stage. Most people think of caterpillars in this stage. The caterpillar crawls out of it's egg and eats it's egg. Eggs are natural nourishment for a young hungry caterpillar. They are very tiny when they hatch, but they grow very quickly. Within 12 - 18 days they will be 2 inch caterpillars and ready to form a chrysalis. In this time they will shed their skin 4 -5 times. They eat like crazy. They can eat commercially prepared food, or thistles, nettles, mallow or plantain that you gather outdoors. We fed ours the commercially prepared food that came with the kit. But we learned that after three generations they can go infertile on this food, and that it is better to feed them fresh food.


Third stage of a butterfly is the pupa. In this stage they form a chrysalis. While inside, they turn themselves into liquid, then reform into a butterfly. This stage lasts for about 10 days.

The natural predictors of a chrysalis is birds, frogs, snakes and lizards. Their defense is remarkably wiggling. I was amazed that they wiggle while they are liquid, but they do it some how.


The last and most delightful stage is the adult butterfly. They can live up to two weeks. They like to drink nectar from flowers and drink juice from orange slices. Our butterflies laid eggs on the orange slices, thinking their caterpillars will have good food.

I'll tell you about these pictures.
This picture is a remarkable picture of a butterfly drinking. To see it's full glory, I invite you to click on the photo. This is my favorite pictures of my butterflies. Mama took the picture of this butterfly drinking nectar out of the dandelion.

I like this butterfly picture because it shows the pollen on the stamens of an apple blossom.


This picture is a lovely picture of a Painted Lady drinking nectar out of the dandelion. To see it in full glory, you can click on the picture. I helped mama take these pictures. I held the dandelion in the light for her.

If you want to know more about how to keep butterflies go here.