Our final unit this year is butterflies. Over the next week or so, as we wind down the Pathfinder year, we will share a bit about a few local butterflies, and encourage our SAIL supporters to go out and find some butterflies yourself while enjoying nature.
To begin, lets talk about the three Vanessa butterflies here in Central Texas. We have the Red Admiral (Vanessa atalanta), the Painted Lady (Vanessa cardui), and the American Lady (Vanessa virginiensis). All are relatively common here, perhaps the Red Admiral more so than the other two. The Vanessas are interesting i9n that the adult hibernates through the winter in our area (many other butterflies and moths are usually in their pupal stage over winter, not in their adult form). This may explain why they are some of the first to see every spring.
The Red Admiral is the easiest of the three to identify. When its wings are open, the appear black with red or red-orange trailing edges and a strong red/red-orange diagonal stripe across the wing, accented with a few white markings near the forward wingtip (those white markings are common to all three of our Vanessas). Red Admirals are common to see on trees, or even patches of mud, and prefer fruit and tree sap to flowers.
The Painted Lady is orange above, with black markings, including a row of dots along the hind wing, and the white wingtip markings like our other Vanessas. When the wings are closed, the underside is usually tannish with a complex darker pattern, with a row of four large black spots along the trailing edge of the hind wing. At rest, sometimes the forewing is well ticked, and only the tip with white markings is visible, but when more wing is exposed, it may appear reddish or even pinkish in some lights. Adult Painted Ladies frequent flowers in the Asteraceae family.
The American Lady is frequently confused with the Painted Lady, and at first glance they appear to be the same. But the American Lady has two larger spots on the underside of the wing (instead of the four smaller spots on the Painted Lady), and on the upper side of the wing, white in some of the black wing spots, and a single tiny white dot on a wing cell distinguishes the American Lady from the Painted Lady. Adults feed on the Asteraceae family and the Apocynaceae family, the latter which includes the milkweeds.
Next time your are out, keep an eye around the flowers (or trees), and see if you can spot one of our local Vanessa butterflies!
To begin, lets talk about the three Vanessa butterflies here in Central Texas. We have the Red Admiral (Vanessa atalanta), the Painted Lady (Vanessa cardui), and the American Lady (Vanessa virginiensis). All are relatively common here, perhaps the Red Admiral more so than the other two. The Vanessas are interesting i9n that the adult hibernates through the winter in our area (many other butterflies and moths are usually in their pupal stage over winter, not in their adult form). This may explain why they are some of the first to see every spring.
The Red Admiral is the easiest of the three to identify. When its wings are open, the appear black with red or red-orange trailing edges and a strong red/red-orange diagonal stripe across the wing, accented with a few white markings near the forward wingtip (those white markings are common to all three of our Vanessas). Red Admirals are common to see on trees, or even patches of mud, and prefer fruit and tree sap to flowers.
The Painted Lady is orange above, with black markings, including a row of dots along the hind wing, and the white wingtip markings like our other Vanessas. When the wings are closed, the underside is usually tannish with a complex darker pattern, with a row of four large black spots along the trailing edge of the hind wing. At rest, sometimes the forewing is well ticked, and only the tip with white markings is visible, but when more wing is exposed, it may appear reddish or even pinkish in some lights. Adult Painted Ladies frequent flowers in the Asteraceae family.
The American Lady is frequently confused with the Painted Lady, and at first glance they appear to be the same. But the American Lady has two larger spots on the underside of the wing (instead of the four smaller spots on the Painted Lady), and on the upper side of the wing, white in some of the black wing spots, and a single tiny white dot on a wing cell distinguishes the American Lady from the Painted Lady. Adults feed on the Asteraceae family and the Apocynaceae family, the latter which includes the milkweeds.
Next time your are out, keep an eye around the flowers (or trees), and see if you can spot one of our local Vanessa butterflies!
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