Vanessa (butterfly)

Taxobox
name = "Vanessa"


image_width = 250px
image_caption = Red admiral, "Vanessa atalanta"
regnum = Animalia
phylum = Arthropoda
classis = Insecta
ordo = Lepidoptera
superfamilia = Papilionoidea
familia = Nymphalidae
subfamilia = Nymphalinae
tribus = Nymphalini
genus = "Vanessa"
genus_authority = Fabricius, 1807
subdivision_ranks = Species
subdivision = Some 20, see text.

"Vanessa" is a genus of brush-footed butterflies. Many people are familiar with it, as 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 butterfly, or the painted ladies of subgenus "Cynthia": Painted Lady, American Painted Lady, Australian Painted Lady, etc.

The name of the genus may have been taken from the girl's name. Though it has been suggested the name may be a variant of "Phanessa", from an Ancient Greek word for a mystic divinity, this is unlikely. The name of the divinity 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.

In popular culture

John Shade discusses the "Vanessa" genus in reference to his wife in Nabokov's "Pale Fire". [ Nabokov, Vladimir (1992) "Pale Fire". New York: Everyman's Library 133]

pecies

*Abyssinian Admiral, "Vanessa abyssinica" (C. & R. Felder, 1867)
*"Vanessa altissima" (Rosenberg et Talbot, 1914)
*West Coast Lady, "Vanessa annabella"
*Red Admiral, "Vanessa atalanta"
*"Vanessa braziliensis" (Moore, 1883)
*"Vanessa buana" (Fruhstorfer, 1898)
*"Vanessa calliroe" (Hübner, 1808)
*Painted Lady, "Vanessa cardui"
*"Vanessa carye" (Hübner, 1812)
*"Vanessa dejeanii" (Godart, 1824)
*"Vanessa dilekta"
*New Zealand Red Admiral, "Vanessa gonerilla"
*Indian Red Admiral or Asian Admiral, "Vanessa indica"
*Yellow Admiral, "Vanessa itea"
*Australian Painted Lady, "Vanessa kershawi"
*"Vanessa myrinna" (Doubleday, 1849)
*"Vanessa samani" (Hagen, 1895)
*Kamehameha butterfly, "Vanessa tameamea"
*"Vanessa terpsichore" Philipi, 1859
*American Painted Lady, "Vanessa virginiensis"
*Canary Red Admiral, "Vanessa vulcania" (Godart, 1819)

References

External links

* [http://www.public.iastate.edu/~mariposa/species.html More information about the genus "Vanessa"]