Cosmopolitan butterfly painted lady

Abstract

In the Maltese Islands, there are about 40 species of butterflies. Some of the butterfly species are migratory, others reside in the Islands and the status of some of them is threatened. The Painted Lady is the butterfly which often migrates in large numbers. The most cosmopolitan of all butterflies, the Painted Lady occurs practically worldwide. Almost all of Europe, Asia, North America, Africa, Australia, Central America, and numerous island groups in the Caribbean, Atlantic, Indian and Pacific oceans are home to this species, at least for part of the year. There are no populations in South America south of Venezuela or in the polar regions, although the species occasionally flies north of the Arctic Circle. The Painted Lady is sometimes called the Cosmopolite or Cosmopolitan because of this wide distribution. [excerpt]