Hummingbird and Butterfly Gardening: Quick question, 1 by IrisLover79

IrisLover79 wrote:
Hello everyone,

I'm new to this forum and have a quick question. How do you tell apart a Painted Lady (Vanessa cardui) and an American Painted Lady (Vanessa virginiensis)? Unfortunately, my books only have info on the first butterfly. I've looked at the photos in the BugFiles, but I can't tell them apart. Are the differences very subtle? I'm trying to figure out which one is in this photo. It never opened its wings long enough for me to get a good look at the tops of them. Any ideas? Thanks!

~Kristy

Okay, I just realized that this is a Red Admiral, ooops! I'd still like to know how to tell the Painted Ladies apart, though.

This message was edited Jul 1, 2007 2:17 PM

This message was edited Jul 1, 2007 2:23 PM