It's certainly shaping up to be a good year for Painted Lady in the UK, reflecting @chrisvanswaay.eurosky.social's observations in the Netherlands. Last week in Kent I saw both translucent, presumably migrant insects, and mint-fresh newly emerged individuals. Today, in Shetland, a tatty insect.
Jon Dunn
With numbers of Painted Ladies (distelvlinder, V cardui) rising on Dutch Butterfly Monitoring transects, it's a good moment to put this invasion in perspective. The graph shows a small influx, comparable with 1996 and 2003, and smaller than 2009 and 2019. But lets see how it continues.
