Painted Lady Butterfly

The Painted Lady butterfly is a beautiful migrant that could possibly be found anywhere in the British Isles during the summer months, and this July of 2009, thousands of them arrived on our shores from Morocco. At the front of my house there’s a large bowl of miniature yellow Chrysanthemums that attract all manner of flying insects, but for me, the most fascinating and mesmerizing of them is a particular Painted Lady butterfly that lacks a mate. She or he appears to have taken up permanent residence on the flowers, and for the last three days this placid, delicate creature has been sipping nectar while patiently waiting for an attractive mate. Hopefully a suitor will appear in time before a hungry predator arrives on the scene, or the wonderfully ornate nymphalid dies of a broken heart.