American Painted Lady Butterfly

"American Painted Lady Butterfly"

 

WILDLIFE PHOTOGRAPHY – LOPATCONG,  NJ

This photograph is of an American Painted Lady butterfly, also known as American Lady, captured in Lopatcong, a rural town in New Jersey. Camera gear used for this capture was a Nikon D200.

The American Painted Lady or American Lady (Vanessa virginiensis) is a butterfly found throughout North America.

Vanessa virginiensis lives in flowery habitats, usually in mountains. The larvae feed on various Asteraceae, especially the cudweeds of genus Gnaphalium. All stages of the life cycle can be found throughout temperate North America as well as Madeira and the Canary Islands. Occasionally individuals can be found as far as south-west Europe.

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 sub marginal 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.

The lifespan of a Painted Lady Butterfly is 2–4 weeks.

 

Subject Photo exif Data

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    2 Thoughts to “American Painted Lady Butterfly”

    1. Kanika Basak (@kanika_basak)

      American Painted Lady Butterfly (aka American Lady) http://t.co/95uqvOS2 via @wibiya

    2. @yianidy

      American Painted Lady Butterfly (aka American Lady) http://t.co/H3PVFRqD vía @wibiya

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