American lady
Vanessa virginiensis (Drury, 1773)
Status not recordedbutterflies and moths
The American lady (Vanessa virginiensis) is a species in the family Nymphalidae, order Lepidoptera.
No freely licensed photo yet
Quick facts about the American lady
- Weight
- Not recorded
- Length
- Not recorded
- Wingspan
- 4 cm – 6.17 cm
- Lifespan
- Not recorded
- Main food
- Not recorded
- Habitat
- grassland, shrubland
- Young per litter or clutch
- Not recorded
- On the wing
- All year
- Generations a year
- Several
- Larval food plants
- Asteraceae family
- Conservation status
- Not recorded
- Countries on record
- Not recorded
How big is the American lady?
Where does the American lady live?
Not recorded
Is the American lady endangered?
No conservation assessment is recorded for this species in our sources. That is not the same as being safe: it has not been matched to an assessment.
How is the American lady classified?
- kingdomAnimalia
- phylumArthropoda
- classInsecta
- orderLepidoptera
- familyNymphalidae
- genusVanessa
- SpeciesVanessa virginiensis (Drury, 1773)
Synonyms Cynthia simmsi, Cynthia virginiensis, Papilio cardui virginiensis, Papilio huntera, Papilio virginiensis, Pyrameis dallasi, Pyrameis fulvia, Pyrameis huntera, Pyrameis iole, Pyrameis virginiensis, Vanessa ahwashtee, Vanessa huntera, Vanessa massachusettensis
Other names and names in other languages (18)
- American painted ladyEnglish
- Painted beautyEnglish
- Babočka viržinskáCzech
- Mantell Dramor AmericaWelsh
- Amerikanischer DistelfalterGerman
- Cardera AmericanaSpanish
- Belle américaineFrench
- ヴァージニアヒメアカタテハJapanese
- Amerikaanse distelvlinderDutch
- Vanessa-americanaPortuguese
- Ванесса виргинскаяRussian
- Mentyll Tramor AmericaWelsh
- Almirante americanoSpanish
- Mariposa Vanesa americanaSpanish
- Vanesse de VirginieFrench
- Vanesse des PerlièresFrench
- vanesse virginiensisFrench
- Bela-dama-americanaPortuguese
Relatives of the American lady
Other species in the same genus Vanessa.

Red admiral
Vanessa atalanta

Painted lady
Vanessa cardui
Asian admiral
Vanessa indica
Red admiral
Vanessa gonerilla
Australian painted lady
Vanessa kershawi
Godart's admiral
Vanessa vulcania
CompareAmerican lady vs Red admiralAmerican lady vs Painted ladyAmerican lady vs Asian admiralAmerican lady vs Red admiral
Common questions
Answered only where our data holds the answer.
How big is the American lady?
An adult American lady has a wingspan of 4 cm – 6.17 cm, according to values recorded on Wikidata.
What kind of animal is the American lady?
The American lady (Vanessa virginiensis) belongs to the family Nymphalidae in the order Lepidoptera.
Sources and how to cite this page
Data as of 2026-11-11. How this page is put together.
- An amniote life-history database to perform comparative analyses with birds, mammals, and reptiles · CC0 1.0 · E096-269
Myhrvold, N.P., Baldridge, E., Chan, B., Sivam, D., Freeman, D.L. & Ernest, S.K.M. (2015) An amniote life-history database to perform comparative analyses with birds, mammals, and reptiles. Ecology 96: 3109. https://doi.org/10.1890/15-0846R.1. Data: https://doi.org/10.6084/m9.figshare.3563457.v1 - AmphiBIO, a global database for amphibian ecological traits · CC BY 4.0 · v1
Oliveira, B.F., São-Pedro, V.A., Santos-Barrera, G., Penone, C. & Costa, G.C. (2017) AmphiBIO, a global database for amphibian ecological traits. Scientific Data 4: 170123. https://doi.org/10.1038/sdata.2017.123. Data: https://doi.org/10.6084/m9.figshare.4644424.v5 - AVONET: morphological, ecological and geographical data for all birds · CC BY 4.0 · v7
Tobias, J.A. et al. (2022) AVONET: morphological, ecological and geographical data for all birds. Ecology Letters 25: 581–597. https://doi.org/10.1111/ele.13898. Data: https://doi.org/10.6084/m9.figshare.16586228.v7 - Catalogue of Life eXtended Release · CC BY 4.0 · 2026-10-16 XR
Catalogue of Life (2026). Catalogue of Life eXtended Release, version 2026-10-16 XR. Catalogue of Life Foundation, Amsterdam, Netherlands. https://doi.org/10.48580/dgzlf - Wikimedia Commons · per file (CC0 / public domain / CC BY green, CC BY-SA amber, anything else not displayed) · 2026-11-11
Wikimedia Commons contributors. Wikimedia Commons. https://commons.wikimedia.org (each file credited to its author under its own licence). - EltonTraits 1.0: species-level foraging attributes of the world's birds and mammals · CC0 1.0 · 1.0
Wilman, H., Belmaker, J., Simpson, J., de la Rosa, C., Rivadeneira, M.M. & Jetz, W. (2014) EltonTraits 1.0: Species-level foraging attributes of the world's birds and mammals. Ecology 95: 2027. https://doi.org/10.1890/13-1917.1. Data: https://doi.org/10.6084/m9.figshare.3559887.v1 - LepTraits 1.0: a globally comprehensive dataset of butterfly traits · CC0 1.0 · 1.0
Shirey, V., Larsen, E., Doherty, A. et al. (2022) LepTraits 1.0: a globally comprehensive dataset of butterfly traits. Scientific Data 9: 382. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41597-022-01473-5. Data: https://doi.org/10.6084/m9.figshare.19874602.v1 - Northwestern European arthropod life histories and ecological traits (raw datasets) · CC BY 4.0 · 2024-12-17
Logghe, G., Batsleer, F., Maes, D. et al. (2025) An in-depth dataset of northwestern European arthropod life histories and ecological traits. Biodiversity Data Journal 13: e146785. https://doi.org/10.3897/BDJ.13.e146785. Data: https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.13379714 - ReptTraits: a comprehensive dataset of ecological traits in reptiles · CC BY 4.0 · v1-2
Oskyrko, O., Mi, C., Meiri, S. et al. (2024) ReptTraits: a comprehensive dataset of ecological traits in reptiles. Scientific Data 11: 243. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41597-024-03079-5. Data: https://doi.org/10.6084/m9.figshare.24572683.v4 - Sharkipedia: a curated open access database of shark and ray life history traits · CC BY 4.0 · 1.0-2022-06-17
Mull, C.G., Pacoureau, N., Pardo, S.A. et al. (2022) Sharkipedia: a curated open access database of shark and ray life history traits and abundance time-series. Scientific Data 9: 559. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41597-022-01655-1. Data: https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.6656525 - SquamBase 1.0 - a dataset of squamate species traits · CC0 1.0 · 1.0-dryad-v5
Meiri, S. (2024) SquamBase - a database of squamate (Reptilia: Squamata) traits. Global Ecology and Biogeography 33(4): e13812. https://doi.org/10.1111/geb.13812. Data: https://doi.org/10.5061/dryad.76hdr7t3b - TraitCH: a multi-taxa functional trait dataset for Switzerland and Europe · CC BY 4.0 · 2.0
Chauvier, Y., Adde, A., Bergamini, A. et al. (2025) TraitCH: a multi-taxa functional trait dataset for Switzerland and Europe. Zenodo. https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.15063844 - Wikidata · CC0 1.0 · 2026-11-11
Wikidata contributors. Wikidata. https://www.wikidata.org (data retrieved via the Wikidata Query Service). - Wikipedia (English) · CC BY-SA 4.0 · 2026-11-11
Wikipedia contributors. Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. https://en.wikipedia.org (text under CC BY-SA 4.0; each block names its article and revision).
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Copy this code. The card shows the photo with its credit, key facts and a link back to this page.
CreatureData. (2026). American lady (Vanessa virginiensis). Retrieved from https://creaturedata.com/animals/american-lady
“American lady (Vanessa virginiensis).” CreatureData, 2026, https://creaturedata.com/animals/american-lady.
@misc{american_lady_2026,
title = {American lady (Vanessa virginiensis)},
author = {{CreatureData}},
year = {2026},
url = {https://creaturedata.com/animals/american-lady},
note = {Data as of 2026-11-11}
}