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The Painted Lady is one of the most widely distributed migratory butterflies in the world. Closely related to the Red Admiral, male and female are alike. Wing colour ranges from rose-pink when freshly emerged to light orange with older individuals. It is perhaps unlikely that the wing colour and pattern have evolved to provide camouflage when basking on gravel, but it certainly works - as one can see on the right!
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Not quite so impressive on bare earth though!
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The delicate chequer-board patterning of the underwing is much more convincing when pretending to be a Grayling
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The underwing emphasises the similarity to the Red Admiral, showing the same basic pattern structure - though of course in different colours
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The "peacock eyes" are specific to the Painted Lady, though the Red Admiral does have circular structures in the same places
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