painted lady

American painted lady (Vanessa virginiensis)

(credit: E.S. Ross)

Either of two species of butterflies in the genus Vanessa (family Nymphalidae): V. cardui of Africa and Europe or V. virginiensis of North and Central America. They have broad, elaborately patterned wings of reddish orange, brown, white, and blue. In spring, vast numbers of V. cardui travel thousands of miles across the Mediterranean from Africa to Europe. A few members of the subsequent generation travel south in late summer, but most perish in the northern winter. North American painted ladies travel in spring from northwestern Mexico to the Mojave Desert and sometimes as far as Canada. Their larvae eat plants in the aster family; V. cardui larvae eat thistles and stinging nettles.

painted lady

a migratory nymphalid butterfly, Vanessa cardui, with pale brownish-red mottled wings

Painted Lady

(Pyrameis cardui), a butterfly of the family Nymphalidae with a wingspread reaching 6 cm. Painted ladies are brownish black with white and pinkish red spots; the underside of the hind wings has a marbled design and eye spots along the outer edge. The caterpillar is yellow and dark gray and is covered with spines. It usually lives in the leaves of plants of the family Compositae, especially thistle, drawing the leaves together with silk threads. The painted lady is found on all the continents except South America. During years of mass reproduction, the caterpillars damage soybeans, sunflowers, hemp, cotton, and other crops. Measures to control the insect include weeding crops during the egg-laying period and spraying the plants with insecticides.

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The painted lady who always came in late, tripping into the room with a prepared smile as though she came out upon a stage, might well have quailed before Mrs.

The Voyage Out by Woolf, Virginia View in context

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