Vanessa cardui the HOSTS database. The main defense mechanisms of the painted lady butterflies include flight and camouflage. The caterpillars hide in small silk nests on top of leaves from main predators that include wasps, spiders, ants, and birds. "Vanessa cardui" and other painted lady butterflies are bred in schools for educational purposes and used for butterfly releases at hospices, memorial events and weddings. Vanessa cardui Vanessa cardui is a well-known colorful butterfly, known as the painted lady, or in North America as the cosmopolitan. "V. cardui" is one of the most widespread of all butterflies, found on every continent except Antarctica
Brachycaudus cardui viral disease affecting plums, damsons, peaches, apricots and some other plants. Brachycaudus cardui Brachycaudus cardui is a species of aphid, commonly known as the thistle aphid or the plum-thistle aphid. It infests trees in the genus "Prunus" in the spring and autumn, and mostly plants in the aster family in the summer. The viviparous wingless females of "B. cardui" have an oval or pear-shaped body and grow to a length of from . The colour may be green, yellowish, reddish or brown. The abdomen has a dark, shining patch on the dorsal surface, a fact which distinguishes this species from