CreatureData

Red admiral

Vanessa gonerilla (Fabricius, 1775)

Status not recordedbutterflies and moths

The red admiral (Vanessa gonerilla) is a species in the family Nymphalidae, order Lepidoptera.

No freely licensed photo yet

Quick facts about the red admiral

Weight
Not recorded
Length
Not recorded
Wingspan
5 cm – 6 cm
Lifespan
Not recorded
Main food
Not recorded
Habitat
Not recorded
Young per litter or clutch
Not recorded
On the wing
All year
Generations a year
Several
Larval food plants
Urticaceae family
Conservation status
Not recorded
Countries on record
Not recorded

How big is the red admiral?

RED ADMIRAL · WINGSPAN 6 CMADULT HUMAN · HEIGHT 1.7 M
At 6 cm, the recorded maximum wingspan of the red admiral is about 3.5% of the height of an adult human (1.7 m, a fixed reference used for scale).

Where does the red admiral live?

Not recorded

Is the red admiral 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 red admiral classified?

  1. kingdomAnimalia
  2. phylumArthropoda
  3. classInsecta
  4. orderLepidoptera
  5. familyNymphalidae
  6. genusVanessa
  7. SpeciesVanessa gonerilla (Fabricius, 1775)

Synonyms Pyrameis gonerilla

Other names and names in other languages (5)
  • New Zealand red admiralEnglish
  • maoriamiraaliFinnish
  • ミナミアカタテハJapanese
  • KakahuMāori
  • KahukuraMāori

Catalogue of Life

Relatives of the red admiral

Other species in the same genus Vanessa.

LC, Least Concern
Red admiral (Vanessa atalanta)

Red admiral

Vanessa atalanta

Nymphalidae

CompareRed admiral vs Red admiralRed admiral vs Painted ladyRed admiral vs American ladyRed admiral vs Asian admiral

Common questions

Answered only where our data holds the answer.

How big is the red admiral?

An adult red admiral has a wingspan of 5 cm – 6 cm, according to values recorded on Wikidata.

What kind of animal is the red admiral?

The red admiral (Vanessa gonerilla) 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). Red admiral (Vanessa gonerilla). Retrieved from https://creaturedata.com/animals/vanessa-gonerilla

MLA

“Red admiral (Vanessa gonerilla).” CreatureData, 2026, https://creaturedata.com/animals/vanessa-gonerilla.

BibTeX
@misc{vanessa_gonerilla_2026,
  title = {Red admiral (Vanessa gonerilla)},
  author = {{CreatureData}},
  year = {2026},
  url = {https://creaturedata.com/animals/vanessa-gonerilla},
  note = {Data as of 2026-11-11}
}