First Painted Lady of 2022 in Ames, Iowa

On August 16, 2022, I spotted the first Painted Lady of the season here in Ames, Iowa. It was large and fresh, with damage to the right hind wing that might have been caused by a bird attempting to catch it. The butterfly was nectaring on ironweed in a planted prairie bioswale. It spent at least 20 minutes in this area visiting ironweed flowers. https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/131257109

During a La Niña year such as this one, when the spring generation of Painted Ladies in the American Southwest is generally very low, Painted Ladies typically arrive in Iowa no earlier than mid-August. This one arrived at a time when I was expecting the first one to appear soon during the upcoming days.

Publicerat 18 augusti 2022 15.31 av iowabiologist iowabiologist

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