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Vanessa virginiensis
AKA: American Painted Lady, Hunter's Butterfly and Dama dos ojos Larvae are variable: greenish yellow with black bands to black with cream bands, numerous red-based branched spines; two prominent white spots on each segment. Often found with Vanessa cardui and not obviously different unless one looks closely. One of the few "numbered" butterflies, Hodges #4434
Range: Much of North America south to Columbia and Venzuela. Also found, mostly at high elevations, on several islands in the Greater Antilles. Overwintering in the south and moving northward (usually well into Canada) varying distances during the spring and summer where it breeds and produces summer generations. Also sometimes encountered in western Europe, where it is likely a stray, and apparently established in the Canaries and Hawaii. Food: Larvae feed on Cudweeds and Everlastings.
Replaced in South America by extremely similar V. braziliensis and V. altissima, which are both perhaps subspecies of V. virginiensis; and which if so, would make this a very wide-ranging species occurring pretty much through the entirety of the Americas. South American V. myrinna is also very similar and sometimes confused with the others, even though distinctly different. *** Found this today on a nature walk along the Medina River. ***