Vanessa Cardui

Since I will be in charge of keeping Heraldo alive for as long as possibly--preferably until he flies--I figured I should probably do some basic research on this species of butterfly and see if I need to do anything special for it. Below is some general information I have discovered about what he will eventually looks like, his diet, common habitat in the wild, as well as the stages of life he will go through.

Myers, P., R. Espinosa, C. S. Parr, T. Jones, G. S. Hammond, and T. A. Dewey. 2012. The Animal Diversity Web (online). Accessed a http://animaldiversity.org.

Overall, this species of butterfly seems to be very hardy and versatile. It can be found almost anywhere in the world besides South America, the Arctic or Australia. It also feeds on hundreds of different plants, specifically thistles and hollyhocks. In fact, it likes thistles so much that it has earned the name "Thistle Butterfly" after its food source. Since I will be raising him indoors, the caterpillar is currently eating a food paste provided by the company we bought the caterpillars from. When he turns into a butterfly, I will provide oranges or other nectar-like fruit for him to feed on.
Based on information from about.com, I found the following outline of this species' life-cycle:

 Egg - Mint green, barrel-shaped eggs are laid singly on the leaves of host plants, and             hatch in 3-5 days. Larva - The caterpillar has five instars over 12-18 days. Pupa - The chrysalis stage lasts about 10 days.Adult - Butterflies live for just two weeks. (Painted Lady Butterfly) 

I am excited to see him go through the stages. For the next week or so, he will be growing rapidly!