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Vanessa virginiensis Fabricius, 1807
American Painted Lady
Family: Nymphalidae (Brushfoots)
Species account authors: Crispin Guppy and Jon Shepard.
Extracted from Butterflies of British Columbia.
Introduction to the Lepidoptera of BC
Introduction to the Butterflies of BC
The Families of Lepidoptera of BC

Photograph

© Norbert Kondla     (Photo ID #74155)

Map

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Distribution of Vanessa virginiensis in British Columbia.
(Click on the map to view a larger version.)
Source: Butterflies of British Columbia by Crispin Guppy and Jon Shepard © Royal BC Museum

Species Information


Adult

American Ladies are characterized by two large submarginal eyespots on each ventral hindwing. The dorsal hindwings have four submarginal eyespots, with the first and last spots larger than the inner two spots. The dorsal hindwings and the basal half of the forewings are almost entirely orange brown, without most of the black markings of the Painted Lady and the West Coast Lady. Males and females are very similar in appearance.

Immature Stages

Eggs are barrel-shaped with 13-16 high vertical ribs; they are yellow green. Mature larvae have black heads. The body is velvet black and covered with black spines, with delicate transverse yellowish lines across each segment. At the front of the base of each dorso-lateral spine is a large round silver white spot. Pupae are usually a dull grey white marked with brown or olive brown, but are sometimes golden green marked with purple. The darker markings form an irregular broad band along the length of the sides, and there are orange-tipped tubercles (Scudder 1893).

Subspecies

None. The type locality of the species is "Virginia."

Genus Description


The name Vanessa is probably from Swift's poem of Cadenus and Vanessa (Reed 1870; Emmet 1991). The common name "ladies" is derived from that of the most common species in the genus, the Painted Lady.

Ladies in BC are predominantly medium-sized to large orange brown butterflies with black markings, except for the Red Admiral, which is black with red and white markings. Adults are strong, fast erratic flyers that are most easily approached when they are nectaring. Thistles, alfalfa, and asters are favourite nectar sources (CSG), probably because ladies are most abundant in mid to late summer, when these are the predominant nectar sources.

All four of the ladies in BC are migratory and without permanent populations in BC. There are nine species worldwide.

Biology


American Ladies are strictly migratory into BC, where they rarely reproduce. Apparently they do not successfully hibernate as adults in BC, and are rarely encountered. The larvae live in silk nests among the leaves of the foodplants, and pupation often occurs in the nest. Both pupae and adults hibernate (Scudder 1893).

Outside BC larval foodplants include Anaphalis margaritacea, Antennaria parvifolia, A. plantaginifolia, Artemisia ludoviciana, Gnaphalium palustre, G. bicolor, G. obtusifolium, G. polycephalum, G. purpureum, Helianthus, Myosotis, and Senecio bicolor var. cineraria (Scudder 1889a; Emmel and Emmel 1962; Shapiro 1975b; Ferris and Brown 1981; Scott 1992). J.W. Cockle's record of nettle being used in BC (Jones 1936) is undoubtedly an error.

Habitat


American Ladies occur sporadically across southern BC as rare migrants. Although they have been found only near Vancouver and Victoria and in the Kootenays, they could potentially occur in any open habitat in southern BC.

Distribution

Distribution

American Ladies occur from southern CAN south to northern South America. In the west, breeding populations occur north to about Seattle, with migratory individuals occasionally straying into southern BC. Strays also turn up to the west in Hawaii, and to the east in western Europe.

Status Information

Origin StatusProvincial StatusBC List
(Red Blue List)		COSEWIC
NativeSNAAccidentalNot Listed



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