flying jewels

PEI is seeing a bumper crop of pained lady butterflies this year.  It's a great sign of the basic health of the ecosystem. Hope things continue this way.  According to an article from Nebraska I found on the internet, much of North America is seeing an increase in the population of these flying jewels this year.

"Painted ladies often lay their eggs in soybeans. When those eggs hatch, the caterpillars feed on soybean foliage. Fortunately, those caterpillars have not been seen to have done much damage to soybean crop this year.

"The hordes are not limited to Nebraska. Numbers are high in almost the entire upper Midwest, including Illinois, the Dakotas, Iowa, and Kansas.

"Jonathan Larson, a Nebraska Extension entomologist in Omaha, attributes the butterfly boom to ample rains earlier this year in California. In an interview with the World-Herald, Larson said painted ladies start their migration in California. They spend the summer in cooler places like North Dakota and Canada, but head south through Nebraska as fall approaches. 

"The natural forces that keep a check on the painted lady population evidently didn’t occur this year, Jarvi said. Conditions were ideal, with not many predators or diseases.

"In the insect world, it’s just a matter of weeks to go from egg to adult. We’re probably on a third or fourth generation this year already.”  According to Wikipedia, the lifespan of a painted lady butterfly is two to four weeks.

"It’s interesting that these caterpillars have not caused soybean problems this year.  That shows that a plentiful insect population doesn’t always translate into a problem.

"The caterpillars would do more damage to soybeans if they fed on the developing beanpods.  Soybean plants can withstand quite a bit of defoliation. Caterpillars can eat up to 20 percent of the leaves before it makes sense economically for farmers to apply insecticide.

"Painted ladies are often mistaken for monarch butterflies, which are larger. While painted ladies feed on many plants, monarchs consume only milkweed."

I don't think this is a painted lady caterpillar, - the pictures I found are spiky but less hairy - but it sure is fancy.