taken in a garden in Cannes, Southern France. The Cynthia group of colourful butterflies, commonly called painted ladies, comprises a subgenus of the genus Vanessa in the family Nymphalidae. They are well known throughout most of the world. The painted lady (V. cardui), or thistle butterfly, is a large butterfly (wing span 5?9 cm (2.0?3.5 in)) identified by the black and white corners of its mainly deep orange, black-spotted wings. It has five white spots in the black forewing tips and while the orange areas may be pale here and there, there are no clean white dots in them. Every year, painted lady butterflies make huge migrations from Africa to Europe and back again. They reach the northern parts of Europe and North America during the summer, when temperatures are just right for the butterflies. They continue to reproduce, and then they start flying back south in late summer and fall, when temperatures become too cold in the north.