Host Plants
Larvae feed on Asteraceae spp., including Cirsium, Carduus,Centaurea, Arctium, Helianthus, and Artemisia spp.
The painted lady uses over 300 recorded host plants according to the HOSTS database. For raising in the classroom one need only sprout a bed of black oil sunflower seeds, as are used for bird seed. The caterpillars will eat the true adult leave (not the sprouts) and in this way one may inexpensively produce many host plants. Soak the seeds for eight hours in 10% diluted household bleach (1 pt bleach, 9 pts water) to ensure a disease free, even sprouting. Place the seeds upon the surface of the soil and keep moist until they grow roots and can be watered normally.
Read more about this topic: Vanessa Cardui
Famous quotes containing the words host and/or plants:
“Think of the earth as a living organism that is being attacked by billions of bacteria whose numbers double every forty years. Either the host dies, or the virus dies, or both die.”
—Gore Vidal (b. 1925)
“From the time the Englishman’s bones harden into bones at all, he makes his skeleton a flagstaff, and he early plants his feet like one who is to walk the world and the decks of all the seas.”
—Willa Cather (1876–1947)