American painted lady

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American painted lady
American painted lady (Vanessa virginiensis)

American painted lady ( Vanessa virginiensis )

Systematics
Class : Insects (Insecta)
Order : Butterflies (Lepidoptera)
Superfamily : Papilionoidea
Family : Noble butterfly (Nymphalidae)
Genre : Vanessa
Type : American painted lady
Scientific name
Vanessa virginiensis
( Drury , 1773)
Underside of the American painted lady ( Vanessa virginiensis )
Underside of the Painted Lady
( Vanessa cardui )
(for comparison)

The American painted lady ( Vanessa virginiensis , Syn . : Cynthia virginiensis ) is a butterfly from the family of the noble butterfly (Nymphalidae).

features

butterfly

The moths reach a wingspan of 45 to 67 millimeters. The front wings are orange to yellow-brown in color. Several snow-white to milky white spots of different sizes appear on the black apex . The root field has a light brownish color. A black markings can be seen in the middle field. The hem edge is strongly arched. The hind wings have the same basic color as the forewings and have several blue-pithed eye spots on the outer edge of the wing . The underside of the hind wings is whitish, marbled in different shades of brown and shows two very large, species-typical eye spots on the outer edge, which lie in a broad brown area.

Pre-imaginal stages

The egg is pale yellow-green. The black-headed caterpillar has a whitish to yellow basic color and a row of thorns on each segment, many narrow black transverse lines, wide black bands in the thorns on the upper half of the body and several large whitish spots on the back. The black thorns have a dark red to orange base and are heavily branched. A whitish, yellowish or orange band runs along the side. The pupa is gray-white, yellow, pale brown or gold-green with pink areas. It always has dark spots and brown stripes running laterally and ventrally.

Similar species

The two aforementioned species differ primarily in the absence of the two very large eye-spots on the underside of the hind wings. In contrast, they have four much smaller eye spots there.

Geographical distribution and habitat

American painted ladies are indigenous from the USA to Venezuela and Guatemala and the Greater Antilles , the Canary Islands and the southwest of the Iberian Peninsula. They are considered to be inland migrants , and as they fly very fast, they sometimes cover long distances and allow themselves to be carried by the wind, regularly reaching the low elevations of southern Canada and sometimes even Hawaii , the Galapagos Islands , Labrador , Iceland , the British Isles who have favourited Azores , Madeira . They also reproduce in some of these areas. However, they cannot survive low temperatures in winter. They prefer dry, warm and open terrain that is overgrown with flowers. The population on Tenerife had plummeted over 30 years and was considered extinct until a small population was rediscovered in 2004. In 2009 a population was also discovered on the neighboring island of La Palma . Today there is a stable population in the south of Portugal, from which the moths spread again and again on the Iberian Peninsula for a short time until the occurrences are likely to be destroyed again by a cold winter.

Way of life

In the southern United States (southern California, southern Texas, southern Florida) the species flies all year round, further north it forms two generations, the second of which hibernates. In Ottawa , the moths fly from May to September. The American painted lady does not fly on Tenerife only in the cold season from November to February. On the Iberian Peninsula, the species forms three to four generations per year, which fly from April to November. The last generation hibernates as a moth.

The eggs are laid individually by the butterflies on the upper side of the leaves of the host plants. Young caterpillars live together in webs, for which plant hair is also used. Older caterpillars live individually in spun leaves.

The caterpillars feed on a variety of different plants. For example, they live in North America

The host plant in Tenerife is unknown. For Europe, dysentery herbs ( Gnaphalium ), cat's paws ( Antennaria ) and burdock ( Arctium ) are named as fodder plants.

supporting documents

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ American Lady - Vanessa virginiensis. In: Butterflies and Moths of North America. Retrieved January 10, 2013 .
  2. ↑ a b c d e Scott, p. 283
  3. ↑ a b c Tom Tolman, Richard Lewington, p. 149
  4. ↑ a b Jürgen Hensle: Vanessa virginiensis. Lepiforum e. V., December 15, 2012, accessed January 10, 2013 .

literature

  • James A. Scott: The Butterflies of North America , Stanford University Press, Stanford CA., 1992, ISBN 0-8047-2013-4
  • Tom Tolman, Richard Lewington: The butterflies of Europe and Northwest Africa , Franckh-Kosmos Verlags-GmbH & Co, Stuttgart 1998, ISBN 3-440-07573-7

Web links

Commons : American Painted Lady  - Collection of images, videos, and audio files