First - isn't butterflying fun? Glad to hear you're introducing your daughter to the delights of rearing butterflies. It's also a great way to introduce the idea of conservation!

Now for the butterflies - obviously in order for butterflies to mate you must have a female and a male. None of the guide books I have list any specific way to identify a male/female Painted Lady. In some species there are remarkable differences between the genders, but I don't think there are in Painted Ladies (someone here may know more on this.) IF you happen to have a male and female they would have to breed. The females lay their eggs directly on the larval host plant (in this case, thistle.) This ensures that the offspring have a food source when they hatch. I personally have never kept butterflies in captivity for more than a day and have never tried to breed butterflies in captivity, so I'm afraid I don't have any advice on how to do that.

What may be an easier way is to actually search the host plants in your area to find eggs and or already hatched caterpillars. (better probably to locate eggs if possible because even the tiny caterpillars can sometimes already be parasitized and therefore won't make it.)

This is truly a fun activity and I bet you will be hooked! And this is a great place to learn and share - there are many people on this board that are truly experts!

~Laura

First of all, your daughter is simply adorable, and it is soooo awesome that you are teaching her about the butterflies. My suggestion would be to abandon the idea of breeding Painted Ladies and instead go and buy some Fennel, Parsley, or Dill that has NOT been sprayed with insecticides. There is a good chance that you may get egg laying Eastern Black Swallowtails and they are so easy and interesting to raise. In fact, people often find Black Swallowtail eggs and small caterpillars on the parsley, dill, and fennel plants that are for sale at their local nurseries. You would be looking for a small round light yellow eggs and small black caterpillars which may look like they have white saddles on. I am including some pics. Good luck!
Angie

Ok, here is what the small Black Swallowtail caterpillars will look like. The round silver thing you see next to the egg on the parsley above is a straight pin head which is there for size comparison.

And, here is what the awesome bigger Black Swallowtail caterpillars look like! These are on fennel.
Angie

Those pictures are wonderful! I'll go by the garden center today and have a look around. Thanks for posting the pictures of the eggs!

arylkin, if you'd like to raise painted ladies try planting pearly everlasting.

I've had mature plants the past two years and the females cover them with eggs. If you want to raise them, take a cutting from the plant and place it in water (cover opening so caterpillars won't drown) I tried this with two caterpillars and only had to change their cuttings once....

If you want to raise black swallowtail caterpillars indoor try potting a parsley plant....then raise them on it indoors with minimal effort. goos luck! Tony

Painted Ladies eat many different hosts, Pearly Everlasting possibly among them. But PLs (Vanessa carduii) favor Thistles and mallows. Pearly Everlasting, and Pussytoes (Antennaria) attract American Ladies (Vanessa virginiensis). The two butterflies are very similar.
You can also try sticking a branch covered in eggs/cats in Oasis floral foam to keep hydrated and prevent drowning.

Angie, great idea on the black swallowtails. That is actually the first butterflies that I raised that got me totally hooked!! I now have raised several different varieties and continue to plant more host plants every year!

I agree with Angie that your daughter is adorable! :-) Happy Butterflying!

~Laura

I breed butterflies in captivity I highly suggest going to this website raisingbutterflies.org it shows you how to hand pair and put females in cages to lay eggs. If you feel there abdomen you can feel the eggs so you know it's a female. Hope it works out with the breeding:)

I also purchased some Painted Lady Butterflies from insectlore.com for my kids to experience & I'm in the process of trying to see if they will lay their eggs on the thistle I snagged off the side of the road. I will let you know how it goes! I actually found a small thistle plant & planted it in a small pot so I wouldn't have to change out the plant. The butterflies are mating as I type so hopefully I will have some good advice soon! I actually ended up with 9 butterflies & 8 of them are mating. I have no idea how I ended up with 4 males & 4 females but it worked out well. I actually feel bad for the lone butterfly. I plan on letting the butterflies go after they lay their eggs. Go luck with raising your butterflies!

what if I don't have the host plants mentioned in my region?

Sorry for popping in on an old thread, my painted ladies just mated in captivity. I was intending to let them go beforehand but alas, now they are already mating and I kind of want to see how it turns out. I got what I think is a thistle out of my yard for them to lay on. any advice? OP how did it go?

Well, since our spring, here in new York, came so late and I didn't have anything remotely close to a host plant . My daughter-in-law has a monarch farm in Florida and said only milkweed. So we had a somewhat sad good-bye and let them go. they all fly away in their on time, but I think the lonely female stayed behind. But she finally flew off. Did you know their life span is only 2-4 wks?

Linda, If you just pulled some thistle up, laid it in the cage with them, and it wilted, I doubt the female will lay eggs on it, though she might. Only once has a newly mated female lep laid eggs on a host plant in a cage, and that was a polyphemus moth, who laid eggs on the sweetgum that the luna moth caterpillars in the cage were eating - I got the eggs before the lunas ate them. I have a lot of American ladies here, but painted ladies rarely show up, and I've never found the caterpillars, even though lots of thistles grow on the side of my gravel road.

There haven't been too many people over the years who have posted about finding painted lady caterpillars, but, as I recall from some posters from Oklahoma, the most successful host plant for them is Helianthus/sunflowers. So, if I wanted painted lady caterpillars, I'd plant sunflowers every year. The butterflies could lay eggs on the plants, and the birds could eat the seeds. Also, I'm guessing that some butterflies would nectar on the flowers.

Good luck with that thistle!

Sherry

Ive only ever seen a wild painted lady once. When I did she laid eggs on the pearly everlasting. I do not understand why or how there are not more of them since everybody always buys them and has them be released.

painted lady butterflies use hollyhocks as a host plant too. American ladies use pearly everlasting. Those are two separate species with different host plants

I know I was just shocked when she laid eggs on it. I do a lot american ladies every year.

We got the insect lore kit and have eggs! They laid them on a butterfly bush flower. I was reading that if you get eggs you should feed the caterpillars thistle, hollyhock or parsley. We are hoping to breed these babies and keep the cycle going. Like you I am not finding much information in regards to if they need a certain temperature or how to care for them to ensure they process correctly.

I have never heard of Parsley being a host for them? But the eggs develope in any temp, but warmer the better. Go and either dig up thistle, or buy a hollyhock and put the caterpillars on it so the can raise themsleves, in the cage you have. If you need any help just email me or ask here.

My kids butterflies have laid eggs on the bits of banana we put in for them to feed off. What should I do?

I'm guessing the eggs would easily come off the banana so that you can collect the eggs. Now you have to figure out if you have access to the leaves they need. Some were mentioned here. Others are in the FAQ.
http://faq.gardenweb.com/discussions/2765890/what-host-plants-are-grown-to-feed-caterpillars

If you don't have the leaves, my next suggestion would be to contact whomever you got the caterpillars from and buy the artificial food they have. Probably can make the food yourself because I know one person who does it but I have no clue what the recipe is.

Interesting to see this thread going after so many years. I am having the same problem and would appreciate any and all advice.

i have 7 painted ladies from the kit that absolutely refuse to mate. I appear to have a near 50/50 male female split, with half the butterflies having very large swollen abdomens I take to be full of eggs.

The other half have very slender abdomens. They are all ten days old.

Every afternoon shortly after the sun has stopped hitting the mesh flight cage they live, some of them begin frantically flying around the others, then landing near them. It's the ones with the swollen abdomens, pointing their abdomens at the others, who refuse to respond. I would have thought the males would have been the aggressors but the guys with the skinny abdomens just sit there. This happens day after day. I've resolved to release them at 14 days but would really like eggs first. I'm at wits end.

They are in a large mesh cage with a live hollyhock plant that is in full bloom. This is a host plant for the species so they should lay eggs on it. They do use it for nectar.

I also had a thistle plant in the cage but they ignored it too.

additionly I feed them sugar water, orange, watermelon, and pineapple slices, Gatorade, and a 1:10 mixture of honey and water.

They are kept in temps between 75 to 80 degrees.

i think I'm doing everything right. Why won't they mate and lay eggs?

I have read and been told by someone I consider to be an expert that butterflies that are related (siblings) will not mate. That could be your issue. If they haven't mated in 10 days, I'd think it's likely they aren't going to and I'd release them.

Im done a lot of research on the siblings not mating@wifey2mikey, i know for a fact Eastern commas and question marks, breed like rabbits. That said, interestingly Gray Commas wont. American Ladies mate and lay eggs in my flight house all the time. This is my first year with Painted Ladies, so im going to try it out and see what happens. Would venture to guess that they already have mated. Have you checked each host plant throughly because those little buggers love to tuck the eggs in the most awkward positions?

Thanks for the replies all. Yes I've gone over the host plants with a fine tooth comb. No eggs.

We watch the mating dance every afternoon shortly after they've lost the sun, in complete bewilderment. One of the sexes is most definitely ready to mate and, making up about half the population, pursues the other half for a good 30 or 45 minutes at least, but there is no interest from the other side. They simply sit there.

I thought it could be my host plant but have tried two different hollyhocks, three different thistles, even a mallow.

I've observed them nectaring on more than one of the food sources I've provided. They seem very healthy, vibrant, normal butterflies.

will be setting them free shortly. Had just hoped to solve this puzzle as I have a large stock of artificial food purchased in anticipation of hearing that these were so easy to breed.