American Painted Lady Butterfly (Vanessa virginiensis)

American Painted Lady butterflies are a great example of how looking closer at the world around us can offer surprising rewards.

I spotted this butterfly from approximately 30 feet away as I was hiking along a utility cut, looking for creatures as always. Its bright orange and deep black coloration stood out against the sunlit green of the weedy vegetation, and at first glance, I thought it was a Monarch butterfly (Danaus plexipus). After all, Monarchs are the most famous orange and black butterflies around.

But as I moved closer to investigate, I quickly realized that this butterfly was something completely different. The orange was slightly paler, the black not as extensive as in Monarchs, and both the body color and wing patterning was all wrong.

I was actually looking at an American Painted Lady butterfly – an often overlooked yet truly beautiful species.

Species Information

Classification

Kingdom	Animalia
Phylum	Arthropoda
Class	Insecta
Order	Lepidoptera
Family	Nymphalidae (“brushfoots”) (subfamily Nymphalinae “true brushfoots”)
Genus species	Vanessa virginiensis

American Painted Lady butterflies (also called simply “American Lady”) belong to the “brushfoot butterfly” family Nymphalidae, which contains more species worldwide than any other butterfly family. There are approximately 3000 brushfooted butterfly species worldwide, around 160 of which can be found living in, or visiting, North America (Pile, 2020).

Butterflies classified in this family have reduced front legs, which makes them appear to have only four legs at first glance. The front legs look like little brushes (thus the family name) and aren’t used for walking.

Physical Appearance

Eggs: Small, pale green, barrel-shaped; laid one at a time on the tips of host plant leaves (Daniels, 2003).

Caterpillars / larvae: Approximately 1.25 inches (3 cm long) (Wright, 1993), the bodies of American Painted Lady caterpillars can vary slightly but are usually black with white banding between body segments. Each body segment sprouts BRANCHED SPINES WITH RED BASES and all abdominal segments except the first and final two have pairs of white spots. Their heads are black and hairy but don’t have spines (Wagner, 2005).

American Painted Lady chrysalises are greenish-brown with gold markings and often hidden inside the caterpillars’ leafy shelters (Bartlett Wright, 1993).

Adults: American Painted Ladies are on the small side for brushfoot butterflies, with adults growing to approximately 2.4 inches (6.1 cm). Both sexes show similar coloration but females have broader wings (Daniels, 2003).

The dorsal (“top”) surface of their wings are mostly orange, which can sometimes appear pinkish when the angle of the sun is just right. The tips of their forewings are black, and dotted with bright white blotches of different sizes. The margins of the hind wings have a row of four black spots; the first and last of which are larger than the middle two.

The ventral (“bottom”) wing surfaces are intricately patterned with a cobweb or lace-like pattern. The overall color is much paler than the top wing surfaces. The underside of American Painted Lady butterfly wings are mostly olive, black, and white, but they have a large pink patch on their forewings and two large black and olive-colored eyespots on each hind wing.

Their bodies are orange and furry looking and the clubs on the tips of their antennae are white. Like all butterflies classified within the brushfoot butterfly family Nymphalidae, their forelegs can be significantly shorter than the middle or hind legs.

Lifecycle

Like all butterflies, American Painted Lady butterflies undergo “holometabolism”, which means they progress through four life stages: egg, larva, pupa, and adult. Each stage is entirely distinct, with different appearances and behaviors. In the case of butterflies, their larval form is called “caterpillar” and the pupal form develops in a special case called a “chrysalis”, which is unique to lepidopterans.

Habitat and Distribution

American Painted Ladies can be found all across North Carolina from late March to late October. They hatch and develop into multiple generations per season (Daniels, 2003).

These butterflies live in open, disturbed areas, such as roadsides, power line cuts, old fields, gardens, and around construction sites and are abundant across the state of North Carolina.

Food and Feeding Behavior

Larval Host Plants

• Plants in the daisy family Compositae, especially cudweeds (also known as “everlastings”) in genus Gnaphalium (Daniels, 2003)

Adult Food Plants

Adult American Painted Ladies eat flower nectar. They will visit milkweeds (Asclepiadaceae), dogsbane (Apocynum cannabinum), and are especially fond of nectar from flowers in the Aster family (Asteraceae) (Opler, 1994).

Fun Facts

• Other common names for the American Painted Lady butterfly are “Hunter’s butterfly”, and “Virginia lady”.

• American Painted Lady caterpillars create shelters for themselves by spinning silk around leaves. The caterpillars hide from predators in these inconspicuous shelters when they aren’t actively feeding.

• American Painted Lady butterflies are common to abundant in North Carolina, but sometimes go unnoticed and unappreciated because they are relatively small and wary. They fly off quickly when approached but if you spook one of these butterflies, keep still and be patient – they often come back to the same general area within a few minutes.

• As a species, American Painted Ladies seem to be the most cold-tolerant of their close relatives, the Painted Lady and the Red Admiral, and the most likely to overwinter successfully in the northern states (Pyle, 2020).

• Another “lady” species of butterfly called the “Painted Lady” (Vanessa cadui) looks similar to the American Painted Lady (Vanessa virginiensis).
  • A helpful mnemonic to distinguish the two is “American ladies have big eyes and an open mind”.
    • American Lady (V. virginiensis) butterflies have two large eyespots on the underside of their hind wings, which Painted Lady (V. cadui) butterflies lack, thus the “big eyes” portion of this saying.
    • The black markings on the top surface of American Lady (V. virginiensis) butterfly forewings don’t connect, while those on Painted Lady (V. cadui) butterflies do, thus the “open mind” portion of this saying (Glassberg, 1999).

References

Bartlett Wright, Amy. 1993. Peterson First Guides: Caterpillars. Boston, MA: Houghton Mifflin Company.

Daniels, Jaret C. 2003. Butterflies of the Carolinas. Cambridge, MN: Adventure Publications, Inc.

Glassberg, Jeffrey. 1999. Butterflies Through Binoculars: The East: A Field Guide to the Butterflies of Eastern North America. New York, NY. Oxford University Press.

Opler, Paul A. 1994. Peterson First Guide to Butterflies and Moths. Boston, MA: Houghton Mifflin Company.

Pyle, Robert Michael. 2020. National Audubon Society Field Guide to Butterflies: North America. New York, NY. Alfred A. Knopf.

Wagner, David L., 2005. Princeton Field Guides: Caterpillars of Eastern North America. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.