CreatureData

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?

AMERICAN LADY · WINGSPAN 6.17 CMADULT HUMAN · HEIGHT 1.7 M
At 6.17 cm, the recorded maximum wingspan of the American lady is about 3.6% of the height of an adult human (1.7 m, a fixed reference used for scale).

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?

  1. kingdomAnimalia
  2. phylumArthropoda
  3. classInsecta
  4. orderLepidoptera
  5. familyNymphalidae
  6. genusVanessa
  7. 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

Catalogue of Life

Relatives of the American lady

Other species in the same genus Vanessa.

LC, Least Concern
Red admiral (Vanessa atalanta)

Red admiral

Vanessa atalanta

Nymphalidae

Red admiral

Vanessa gonerilla

NymphalidaeNo free photo yet

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.

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APA

CreatureData. (2026). American lady (Vanessa virginiensis). Retrieved from https://creaturedata.com/animals/american-lady

MLA

“American lady (Vanessa virginiensis).” CreatureData, 2026, https://creaturedata.com/animals/american-lady.

BibTeX
@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}
}