This Painted Beauty is a wonderful example of harmonious coloring. The general tone of the upper surface of the wings is fulvous, with some distinct white markings on a blackish background at the outer angles of the front pair. There is also more or less blackish shading on the base and margin of all the wings with an indistinct row of about four dots, more or less run together, near the margin of the hind wing. The under surface of the wings is even more beautiful than the upper, and furnishes a striking example of flower-picturing. There is a little fulvous background near the middle of the front wings, but the rest of the surface is spotted and striped with blotches and circles of gray and brown in a most intricate design. On each front wing near the outer angle are three indistinct eye-spots in a row, and on the outer half of each hind wing there are two bull's-eye circles, one smaller than the other, which form the most conspicuous feature in the marking of the insect. When full grown the caterpillars are a little more than an inch long with a general color of velvety black, marked with fine yellow lines and more or less covered with bristly spines. There is also a distinct row of whitish spots along each side beginning a short distance back of the head. This is a widely distributed butterfly, occurring from Canada to the Southern states and beyond. In most northern regions it seems to be two-brooded, the butterflies commonly hibernating as adults; but sometimes the winter is passed in the condition of the chrysalis. Along its southern range there are three and perhaps four broods each year. =The Painted Lady or the Cosmopolite= _Vanessa cardui_