Painted lady
Vanessa cardui (Linnaeus, 1758)
LCLeast Concernbutterflies and moths
The painted lady (Vanessa cardui) is an insect in the butterflies and moths subgroup, placed in the family Nymphalidae, subfamily Nymphalinae and tribe Nymphalini. It belongs to the order Lepidoptera and the superfamily Papilionoidea, and its scientific name authority is (Linnaeus, 1758).
Quick facts about the painted lady
The painted lady has a wingspan of 6.3 cm and is listed as Least Concern on the IUCN Red List, which is not a threatened category.
- Weight
- Not recorded
- Length
- Not recorded
- Wingspan
- 4.6 cm – 6.09 cmsrc for Wingspan
- Lifespan
- Not recorded
- Diet
- Nectarivoresrc for Diet
- Main food
- flowerssrc for Main food
- Habitat
- grassland, human_modified, shrublandsrc for Habitat
- Young per litter or clutch
- Not recorded
- Active
- By day (diurnal)src for Active
- On the wing
- All yearsrc for On the wing
- Generations a year
- Severalsrc for Generations a year
- Larval food plants
- Asteraceae familysrc for Larval food plants
- Conservation status
- Least Concern (IUCN)src for Conservation status
- Countries on record
- Not recorded
How big is the painted lady?
Photos of the painted lady
Only freely licensed photos are shown. Each carries its creator and licence.
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Where does the painted lady live?
Not recorded
What is the painted lady?
Vanessa cardui is the most widespread of all butterfly species. It is commonly called the painted lady, or formerly in North America the cosmopolitan butterfly.
From the Wikipedia article “Vanessa cardui” (en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Vanessa_cardui&oldid=1380790115), by Wikipedia contributors, licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0 (creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0). This block is kept separate from our own text.
Is the painted lady endangered?
The painted lady is listed as Least Concern on the IUCN Red List: it is not currently at risk of extinction.
- LCLeast Concern
- NTNear Threatened
- VUVulnerable
- ENEndangered
- CRCritically Endangered
- EWExtinct in the Wild
- EXExtinct
Category via Wikidata (CC0). Find the full assessment on the IUCN Red List. See all Least Concern species.
How is the painted lady classified?
- kingdomAnimalia
- phylumArthropoda
- classInsecta
- orderLepidoptera
- familyNymphalidae
- genusVanessa
- SpeciesVanessa cardui (Linnaeus, 1758)
Synonyms Cynthia cardui, Cynthia elymi, Cynthia litoralis, Nymphalis cardui, Papilio belladonna, Papilio carduelis, Papilio cardui, Parameis cardui, Pryrameis martha-maria, Pyrameis brunnea-albimaculata, Pyrameis carduelina, Pyrameis carduelis, Pyrameis carduelis, Pyrameis cardui, Pyrameis cardui f. conjuncta, Pyrameis cardui f. emielymi, Pyrameis cardui f. infaochracea, Pyrameis cardui f. infrabrunnea, Pyrameis cardui f. infraflava, Pyrameis cardui f. infragrisea, Pyrameis cardui f. septiespupillata, Pyrameis cardui f. sexispupillata, Pyrameis cardui inops, Pyrameis cardui japonica, Pyrameis elymnias, Pyrameis flava, Pyrameis japonica, Pyrameis johni, Pyrameis minor, Pyrameis pallens, Pyrameis pallida, Pyrameis rogeri, Pyrameis rosacea, Pyrameis rosea, Pyrameis schoenfellneri, Pyrameis subfracta, Pyrameis takesakiana, Pyrameis varini, Vanessa albicans, Vanessa albipuncta, Vanessa ate, Vanessa belladonna, Vanessa carnea, Vanessa elymi, Vanessa inops, Vanessa inornata, Vanessa jacksoni, Vanessa koreana, Vanessa minor, Vanessa nigripuncta, Vanessa universa, Vanessa ushuwaia, Vanessa wiskotti
Other names and names in other languages (80)
- CosmopolitanEnglish
- Cosmopolitan butterflyEnglish
- Painted lady butterflyEnglish
- Thistle butterflyEnglish
- SondagsrokkieAfrikaans
- فراشة ملونةArabic
- سيدة الحسناءArabic
- سيدة الملونهArabic
- أبو الوشي الجميلArabic
- طاووسية السيدة الجميلةArabic
- فراشة السيدة الملونهArabic
- РапейніцаBelarusian
- Дяволска пеперудаBulgarian
- Migradora dels cardsCatalan
- Farfalla cardaghjaCorsican
- babočka bodlákováCzech
- Mantell DramorWelsh
- Mentyll TramorWelsh
- TidselfuglDanish
- Tidsel-takvingeDanish
- TidselsommerfuglDanish
- TidselsværmerDanish
- DistelfalterGerman
- Βανέσα του ΚάρδουGreek
- CarderaSpanish
- Mariposa Vanesa pintadaSpanish
- Vanesa de los cardosSpanish
- OhakaliblikasEstonian
- Kardu-vanesaBasque
- ohdakeperhonenFinnish
- TistilfirvaldurFaroese
- belle dameFrench
- Belle-dameFrench
- Vanesse du chardonFrench
- StikelflinterWestern Frisian
- ÁilleánIrish
- Bel danmgcf
- dealan-déScottish Gaelic
- dealain-dè na cluaranScottish Gaelic
- dealan-dè na cluaranScottish Gaelic
- Foillycan yn onnaneManx
- StričkovacSerbian (Latin)
- נימפית החורשףHebrew
- Wóstowy kadźencUpper Sorbian
- BogáncslepkeHungarian
- þistilfiðrildiIcelandic
- Vanessa del cardoItalian
- ヒメアカタテハJapanese
- 작은멋쟁이나비Korean
- Perîdanka qîvaranKurdish
- DëschtelpäiperlekLuxembourgish
- DëschtelfalterLuxembourgish
- UsninukasLithuanian
- Dadžu raibenisLatvian
- ചിത്രിതMalayalam
- tistelsommerfuglNorwegian Bokmål
- distelvlinderDutch
- tistelsommarfuglNorwegian Nynorsk
- Dama PintàPapiamento
- Rusałka osetnikPolish
- سوہنی سوانیWestern Panjabi
- Vanessa carduiPortuguese
- Bela-damaPortuguese
- Fluturele De ScaiețiRomanian
- РепейницаRussian
- čuvjesbeaiveloddiNorthern Sami
- Babôčka bodliakováSlovak
- osatnikSlovenian
- ЧкаљевацSerbian
- ČkaljevacSerbian
- tistelfjärilSwedish
- ผีเสื้อแดงยุโรปThai
- Diken KelebeğiTurkish
- Сонцевик будяковийUkrainian
- 苧胥Chinese
- 全球赤蛺蝶Chinese
- 姬紅挾蝶Chinese
- 姬紅蛺蝶Chinese
- 小紅蛺蝶Chinese
- 小红蛱蝶Chinese
Catalogue of LifeWikipediaiNaturalistITISTAXREFWikidataWoRMSIUCN Red List
Relatives of the painted lady
Other species in the same genus Vanessa.
Red admiral
Vanessa atalanta
American lady
Vanessa virginiensis
Asian admiral
Vanessa indica
Red admiral
Vanessa gonerilla
Australian painted lady
Vanessa kershawi
Godart's admiral
Vanessa vulcania
ComparePainted lady vs Red admiralPainted lady vs American ladyPainted lady vs Asian admiralPainted lady vs Red admiral
Common questions
Each answer is written from the sourced facts on this page, and only where they hold the answer.
What kind of animal is the painted lady?
The painted lady is an insect in the butterflies and moths subgroup, belonging to the order Lepidoptera and the family Nymphalidae.
What is the scientific name of the painted lady?
The scientific name of the painted lady is Vanessa cardui, in the genus Vanessa.
How big is the painted lady?
The painted lady has a wingspan of 6.3 cm.
Is the painted lady endangered?
No. The painted lady is listed as Least Concern on the IUCN Red List in a global assessment, which is not a threatened category.
What other names does the painted lady have?
The painted lady is also called the Cosmopolitan, Thistle butterfly, Cosmopolitan butterfly and Painted lady butterfly.
Sources and how to cite this page
Data as of 2026-11-11. How this page is put together.
- 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). - 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 - 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).
Embed a card for this animal on your own site
Copy this code. The card shows the photo with its credit, key facts and a link back to this page.
CreatureData. (2026). Painted lady (Vanessa cardui). Retrieved from https://creaturedata.com/animals/vanessa-cardui
“Painted lady (Vanessa cardui).” CreatureData, 2026, https://creaturedata.com/animals/vanessa-cardui.
@misc{vanessa_cardui_2026,
title = {Painted lady (Vanessa cardui)},
author = {{CreatureData}},
year = {2026},
url = {https://creaturedata.com/animals/vanessa-cardui},
note = {Data as of 2026-11-11}
}