Jason E. Andersen

Bonus fun fact: If you have driven a car in the last week, you have no doubt met the Painted Lady butterfly. These little butters have recently had an emergence (where butterfly adults emerge from their cocoons and take flight) and are currently covering every roadway in Iowa. Perhaps unsurprisingly, the Painted Lady is the most widely distributed butterfly in the world, being found on every continent except Australia and Antarctica. The Painted Lady is also called the ‘thistle butterfly’ because its caterpillar host plant (which the caterpillar eats to grow big and strong) are thistles, including both native and introduced species.

Additionally, when Painted Ladies are in very high densities, their caterpillars are also known to munch on soybeans, which makes them a pest to farmers. Stick to the thistles, butterflies!