A strange happened a few evenings ago. I left a glass on my draining board in the kitchen, that had had whisky in it. The door was open, and when I went into the kitchen a little later, in the glass was a painted lady butterfly.
I covered the glass and took it outside, and released the butterfly. I had hardly got back into the kitchen before it flew in again, and again went into the glass! I had to take it to the top of the garden and again release it. I thought it strange, and wondered why the butterfly was about after dark anyway.
isn't wild wonderful
Hello Min,
Not sure about the feeding habits of painted ladies in particular, but some butterflies feed on sweet rotting fruit, which is slightly alcoholic - it may be that your butterfly has smelt the whisky and thought it was dinner!
If you ever visit a tropical house with butterflies, try using really fruity shower gel or shampoo in the morning and you've got more chance of the butterflies landing on you. Strange but true.
Hope that helps a bit, anyone else out there got a theory?
L