Vanessa is a genus of brush-footed butterflies. 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 subgenus Cynthia: 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.

The name of the genus may have been taken from the girl's name. Though the name has been suggested to be a variant of "Phanessa", 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.

Species

The 22 extant species are:

Vanessa abyssinica (C. & R. Felder, 1867) – Abyssinian admiral
Vanessa altissima (Rosenberg & Talbot, 1914) – Andean painted lady
Vanessa annabella (Field, 1971) – West Coast lady
Vanessa atalanta (Linnaeus, 1758) – red admiral
Vanessa braziliensis (Moore, 1883) – Brazilian painted lady
Vanessa buana (Fruhstorfer, 1898) – Lompobatang lady
Vanessa cardui (Linnaeus, 1758) – painted lady or cosmopolitan
Vanessa carye (Hübner, ) – western painted lady
Vanessa dejeanii Godart, 1824
Vanessa dilecta Hanafusa, 1992
Vanessa dimorphica (Howarth, 1966) – dimorphic admiral or northern short-tailed admiral
Vanessa gonerilla (Fabricius, 1775) – New Zealand red admiral
Vanessa hippomene (Hübner, 1823) – southern short-tailed admiral
Vanessa indica (Herbst, 1794) – Indian red admiral or Asian admiral
Vanessa itea (Fabricius, 1775) – Australian or yellow admiral
Vanessa kershawi (McCoy, 1868) – Australian painted lady
Vanessa myrinna (Doubleday, 1849) – vivid banded lady or banded lady
Vanessa samani (Hagen, 1895)
Vanessa tameamea (Eschscholtz, 1821) – Kamehameha butterfly
Vanessa terpsichore Philipi, 1859 – Chilean lady
Vanessa virginiensis (Drury, ) – American lady or American painted lady
Vanessa vulcania (Godart, 1819) – canary red admiral
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.

In popular culture

John Shade discusses the genus Vanessa in reference to his wife in Nabokov's Pale Fire.


source - Wikipedia