Vanessa (butterfly)

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Vanessa
Temporal range: Chadronian-Holocene 37.2–0  Ma
Marzahn Gaerten der Welt 08-2015 img12 Red Admiral.jpg
Red admiral, Vanessa atalanta
LADY, AMERICAN (Vanessa virginiensis) (10-9-12) sawmill cyn, huachuca mts, cochise co, az -01 (8074818474).jpg
American lady, Vanessa virginiensis
Scientific classification OOjs UI icon edit-ltr.svg
Domain: Eukaryota
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Arthropoda
Class: Insecta
Order: Lepidoptera
Family: Nymphalidae
Tribe: Nymphalini
Genus: Vanessa
Fabricius, 1807
Species

See text

Synonyms
  • Fieldia(Niculescu, 1979)
  • Cynthia(Fabricius, 1807)
  • Pyrameis(Hübner, 1819)
  • Bassaris(Hübner, 1821)
  • Ammiralis(Rennie, 1832)
  • Neopyrameis(Scudder, 1889)

Vanessa is a genus of brush-footed butterflies in the tribe Nymphalini. It has a near-global distribution and includes conspicuous species such as the red admirals (e.g., red admiral, Indian red admiral, New Zealand red admiral), the Kamehameha, and the painted ladies of the Cynthia group (formerly a subgenus): Painted lady, American painted lady, West Coast lady, Australian painted lady, etc. For African admirals, see genus Antanartia . Recently, several members traditionally considered to be in the genus Antanartia have been determined to belong within the genus Vanessa. [1]

Contents

The name of the genus may have been taken from the character Vanessa in Jonathan Swift's poem "Cadenus and Vanessa," which is the source of the woman's name Vanessa. In the poem Vanessa is called a "nymph" eleven times, and the genus is closely related to the previously-named genus Nymphalis. [2] Though the name has been suggested to be a variant of "Phanessa", [3] from the name of an Ancient Greek deity, this is unlikely. The name of the deity is actually not "Phanessa" but Phanes. Johan Christian Fabricius, the entomologist who named this genus, normally used the original forms of the names of classical divinities when he created new scientific names.

North American species in the genus overwinter as adults. [4]

Species

The 22 extant species are: [1]

Fossil species

A fossil species, V. amerindica , is known from a specimen found in the Chadronian-aged Florissant Lagerstatte, from Late Eocene Colorado, and coexisted with several other extinct butterfly taxa. [5]

Related Research Articles

<i>Cynthia</i> (butterfly) Subgenus of insects

Cynthia is a group of colourful butterfly species that used to be considered a subgenus of the genus Vanessa, in the family Nymphalidae. Before that, it was first described as a genus. Nowadays, this group is not considered a valid taxon anymore, because it is paraphyletic. The name CynthiaFabricius, 1807 is now a junior subjective synonym of VanessaFabricius, 1807.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Nymphalidae</span> Largest butterfly family

The Nymphalidae are the largest family of butterflies, with more than 6,000 species distributed throughout most of the world. Belonging to the superfamily Papilionoidea, they are usually medium-sized to large butterflies. Most species have a reduced pair of forelegs and many hold their colourful wings flat when resting. They are also called brush-footed butterflies or four-footed butterflies, because they are known to stand on only four legs while the other two are curled up; in some species, these forelegs have a brush-like set of hairs, which gives this family its other common name. Many species are brightly coloured and include popular species such as the emperors, monarch butterfly, admirals, tortoiseshells, and fritillaries. However, the under wings are, in contrast, often dull and in some species look remarkably like dead leaves, or are much paler, producing a cryptic effect that helps the butterflies blend into their surroundings.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">West Coast lady</span> Species of butterfly

The West Coast lady is one of three North American species of brush-footed butterflies known colloquially as the "painted ladies". V. annabella occurs throughout much of the western US and southwestern Canada. The other two species are the cosmopolitan Vanessa cardui and the eastern Vanessa virginiensis. This species has also been considered a subspecies of the South American Vanessa carye and is frequently misspelled as "anabella".

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Kamehameha butterfly</span> Species of butterfly

The Kamehameha butterfly is one of the two species of butterfly endemic to Hawaii, the other is Udara blackburni. The Hawaiian name is pulelehua. This is today a catch-all native term for all butterflies; its origin seems to be pulelo "to float" or "to undulate in the air" + lehua, "reddish", or "rainbow colored", probably due to the predominant color of the Metrosideros polymorpha flower: an animal that floats through the air, from one lehua to another. Alternatively, it is called lepelepe-o-Hina – roughly, "Hina's fringewing" – which is today also used for the introduced monarch butterfly.

<i>Vanessa cardui</i> Species of butterfly

Vanessa cardui is the most widespread of all butterfly species. It is commonly called the painted lady, or formerly in North America the cosmopolitan.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">American lady</span> Species of butterfly

The American painted lady or American lady is a butterfly found throughout North America.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Insect migration</span> Seasonal movement of insects

Insect migration is the seasonal movement of insects, particularly those by species of dragonflies, beetles, butterflies and moths. The distance can vary with species and in most cases, these movements involve large numbers of individuals. In some cases, the individuals that migrate in one direction may not return and the next generation may instead migrate in the opposite direction. This is a significant difference from bird migration.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Nymphalini</span> Tribe of butterflies

Nymphalini is a tribe of nymphalid brush-footed butterflies. Common names include admirals, anglewings, commas, and tortoiseshells, but none of these is specific to one particular genus.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Australian painted lady</span> Species of butterfly

The Australian painted lady is a species of butterfly mostly confined to Australia, although westerly winds have dispersed it to islands east of Australia, including New Zealand. Debate surrounds the taxonomy of this species. Some believe that the Australian painted lady should be a subspecies of the painted lady due to the similarity in lifestyle and behaviour. Furthermore, the painted lady is found around the globe, but Australia is the only location in which it varies enough to be considered a separate species.

<i>Urtica urens</i> Species of flowering plant in the nettle family Urticaceae

Urtica urens, commonly known as annual nettle, dwarf nettle, small nettle, dog nettle, or burning nettle, is a herbaceous annual flowering plant species in the nettle family Urticaceae. It is native to Eurasia, including the Himalayan regions of Kalimpong, Darjeeling and Sikkim in India and can be found in North America, New Zealand and South Africa as an introduced species. It is reputed to sting more strongly than common nettle.

Painted ladies, in the U.S., are Victorian houses repainted in bright polychrome

<i>Vanessa vulcania</i> Species of butterfly

Vanessa vulcania, the Canary red admiral, is a butterfly of the family Nymphalidae. It is found on the Canary Islands and Madeira. Previously, it was considered a subspecies of Vanessa indica, but has been raised to species level after research by Leestmans in 1992.

<i>Vanessa abyssinica</i> Species of butterfly

Vanessa abyssinica, the Abyssinian admiral, is a butterfly in the family Nymphalidae. It is found in Ethiopia, Kenya, Tanzania, Uganda, Rwanda and the Democratic Republic of the Congo. The habitat consists of montane forests.

<i>Vanessa carye</i> Species of butterfly

Vanessa carye, the western painted lady, is a butterfly of the family Nymphalidae. It is found in South America, from the mountains of Colombia and west of Caracas (Venezuela) through Ecuador, Peru, Bolivia, Chile, southern Brazil, and Paraguay to Patagonia in Argentina. It is also found on Easter Island and Tuamotus.

<i>Vanessa braziliensis</i> Species of butterfly

Vanessa braziliensis, the Brazilian painted lady, is a butterfly of the family Nymphalidae found in Brazil, Ecuador, Peru, Bolivia, Venezuela, Paraguay, Uruguay and northern Argentina.

References

  1. 1 2 Wahlberg, Niklas; Rubinoff, Daniel (2011). "Vagility across Vanessa (Lepidoptera: Nymphalidae): mobility in butterfly species does not inhibit the formation and persistence of isolated sister taxa". Systematic Entomology. 36 (2): 362–370. Bibcode:2011SysEn..36..362W. doi: 10.1111/j.1365-3113.2010.00566.x .
  2. Evans, C.K. (1993). "How Vanessa became a butterfly: a psychologist's adventure in entomological etymology". Names. 41 (4): 276–281. doi: 10.1179/nam.1993.41.4.276 .
  3. Sodoffsky, W. (1837). Etymologische Untersuchungen ueber die Gattungsnamen der Schmetterlinge (p. 7).
  4. Scott, J. A. (1999). Hibernal diapause of North American Papilionoidea and Hesperioidea. Journal of Research on the Lepidoptera 18(3):171-200.
  5. Miller, Jacqueline Y., and Frederick Martin Brown. "A new Oligocene fossil butterfly, Vanessa amerindica (Lepidoptera: Nymphalidae), from the Florissant formation, Colorado." Bulletin of the Allyn Museum (USA) (1989).