Painted lady Painted lady The Cynthia group of colourful butterflies, commonly called painted ladies, comprises a subgenus of the genus "Vanessa" in the family Nymphalidae. They are well known throughout most of the world. The group includes: The painted lady ("V. cardui") is a large butterfly (wing span ) identified by the black and white corners of its mainly deep orange, black-spotted wings. It has five white spots in the black forewing tips and while the orange areas may be pale here and there, there are no clean white dots in them. The hindwings carry four small submarginal eyespots on the dorsal
Urophora cardui Urophora cardui Urophora cardui or the Canada thistle gall fly is a fruit fly which, contrary to its common name, is indigenous to Central Europe from the United Kingdom east to near the Crimea, and from Sweden south to the Mediterranean. The Canada thistle gall fly has been introduced to North America from Europe to control the population of its host plant, Canada, or creeping thistle, which is an invasive, introduced weed in North America. The fly starts life as an egg, about one to thirty of them, laid on the stems of its host plant, the Canada thistle, "Cirsium