Monarch or Painted Lady?

Which butterfly is best for your event?

You’ve decided to have butterflies at your event, but now you are posed with the question “Which one do I get, monarch or painted lady?”. Each of these butterflies are beautiful butterflies and are a wonderful addition to your event. Both the Monarch and Painted Lady have distinct advantages depending on the type of event.

Let’s start by discussing the Monarch Butterfly. The monarch butterfly is the butterfly that most people envision when they think of butterflies. It is the most recognizable butterfly in the United States. Monarchs are graceful and beautiful. The monarch butterfly is best suited for mass or individual release. These butterflies will normally fly to flowers if there are flowers nearby.

Another very popular butterfly is the Painted Lady. The painted lady is perfect for display cages or small release containers that are used as place holders. The painted lady is quite content in small spaces where others will try to escape. If your event is for school age children and you want them to be able to feed the butterflies. The painted lady is more likely to nectar off of a child’s finger that has been dipped in Gatorade or sugar water. The painted lady also tends to fly to the ground rather than up to the sky. Therefore they tend to stick around a little longer than the monarch.

One very large difference between these two butterflies is their size. The monarch butterfly is approximately two-thirds larger than the painted lady. Therefore the monarch butterfly is more visible. However if there was a word to describe painted ladies I would say Dainty.