American Lady
Vanessa virginiensis
Summary 4
The American Painted Lady or American Lady (Vanessa virginiensis) is a butterfly found throughout North America.
Description 5
Vanessa virginiensis is most easily distinguishable by its two large eyespots on the ventral side, whereas V. cardui has four small eyespots and V. annabella has none. V. virginiensis also uniquely features a white dot within the forewing subapical field, set in pink on the underside and usually also in the dorsal side's orange field.
The largest spot in the black forewing tips is white in V. cardui, pale orange in this species, and orange in the West Coast species. The latter also has a purer orange background color of the dorsal side, as opposed to the darker and (especially in V. virginiensis) redder hue of the other two.
A less reliable indicator is the row of black eyespots on the dorsal submarginal hindwing. In the American painted lady, those on the opposite ends of the row are often larger and have blue "pupils". In V. annabella, this applies to the inner two spots, while in V. cardui some of the black eyespots may have tiny blue pupils in the summer morph, but usually have none at all, and the eyespots themselves are all roughly the same size. The size of the wings are about 5 cm (2 in) across.
Habitat 6
Comments: Any disturbed or otherwise open setting with foodplants, easily locating even small forest openings. A transient colonizer and long distance migrant not capable of surviving year round in much of its range.
Sources and Credits
- (c) Anne Toal, some rights reserved (CC BY), http://www.flickr.com/photos/39139121@N00/447857261
- (c) John Flannery, some rights reserved (CC BY-SA), http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:American_Lady_-_Independent_and_Free_(2636679841).jpg
- (c) John Brandauer, some rights reserved (CC BY-NC-ND), https://www.flickr.com/photos/brandauer/7343154438/
- Adapted by kmarie333 from a work by (c) Wikipedia, some rights reserved (CC BY-SA), http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vanessa_virginiensis
- (c) Wikipedia, some rights reserved (CC BY-SA), http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_painted_lady
- (c) NatureServe, some rights reserved (CC BY-NC), http://eol.org/data_objects/28742316
More Info
- iNat taxon page
- Animal Diversity Web
- Biodiversity Heritage Library
- BOLD Systems BIN search
- BugGuide
- Butterflies and Moths of North America
- CalPhotos
- CUIC Insect Images
- Global Biodiversity Information Facility (GBIF)
- HOSTS - a Database of the World's Lepidopteran Hostplants
- Lepiforum
- Maryland Biodiversity Project
- Maryland Moths
- Mass Moths
- Moth Photographers Group
- Moths of North Carolina
- NatureServe Explorer 2.0
- NBN Atlas
- Pacific Northwest Moths
- UK Moths
.jpg){kind=link}