West Coast Lady
Vanessa annabella
Vanessa annabella is a butterfly ( butterfly ) of the genus Vanessa in the family Nymphalidae ( Nymphalidae ), which occurs from eastern North America to Central America. In South America it is replaced by the sister species and the Vikariant Vanessa carye.
- 5.1 Literature
- 5.2 Notes and references
- 5.3 External links
Features
Butterfly
The butterflies look very similar to the Painted Lady. The tips of the forewings are but angled, colored black bear and several large and small orange instead of white spots. Only directly at the apex are a few small white spots. The root field and the inner half of the wing has a orange and black spotted drawing. The wing root is colored yellow-brown. The hind wings are yellow-brown at the base and also have an extensive, the drawing of the front wings resembling pattern, the black spots are colored but only as of the wing outer edge, the other spots are pale. In the Postdiskalregion are up to five blue nucleated black spots. The underside of the hind wing is white and mottled in various shades of brown and bears on the outer edge five different sized ocelli. The underside of the forewing as colored top, but much paler. At the leading edge of two large bright spots are visible next to it. The black of the wing tips is partly mixed with shades of brown and the wing base down can be colored orange red in direction.
Preimaginal stages
The eggs are pale green. The caterpillars are differently colored from brown to reddish and have orange spots. The head is small with 2.5 millimeters as the Painted Lady 3.5 millimeters. The pupa is light brown with golden flecks.
Similar Species
- Painted Lady ( Vanessa cardui )
- American Painted Lady ( Vanessa virginiensis )
- Vanessa carye from South America has an almost identical design but a different valva, the males can have very different Gnathen.
In California, there are occasionally hybrids with the Admiral (Vanessa atalanta ) on.
Geographical distribution and habitat
Vanessa annabella comes in western North America north to Washington / Oregon and Central America to Guatemala, east to Montana, Colorado and New Mexico before. Occasional migrant flights to the central British Columbia, eastern North Dakota and southern Ontario are observed. It is thus allopatric spread to her Vikariant Vanessa carye, which occurs south from Colombia and Venezuela.
Way of life
In lowland California, the moths fly over the whole year in several generations. In the Rocky Mountains, the species is zweibrütig, the moths fly in mid-summer and autumn, the latter hibernate. At higher altitudes, there are probably only a generation or they have immigrated. Mass flights are known from California. The mating behavior is identical to the Admiral (Vanessa atalanta ). The habitat is open country and suburban of the Upper Sonoran zone to the Canadian zone.
The eggs are probably placed on top of sheets of the crawler food plants. The caterpillars eat leaves and spider leaves a bag together. The caterpillars feed on various herbaceous plants:
- (Malvaceae ) Hollyhock Althaea rosea, Malacothamnus fasciculatus, Lavatera assurgentifolia, Malvastrum exile, Malva parviflora, common mallow ( Malva sylvestris), way - mallow ( Malva neglecta ), Malva nicaeensis, Malva otundifolia, Sida hederacea, Sidalcea malvaeflora, Sidalcea glaucescens, Sidalcea oregana ssp. spicata, Sphaeralcea ambigua
- Small Nettle (Urtica urens ), stinging nettle (Urtica dioica ssp. Holosericea ).
Zweifelhalfte caterpillar food plants are Lupinus succulentus, Lupinus arboreus, Ovalblättriger privet ( Ligustrum ovalifolium ), Common Privet ( Ligustrum vulgare) and Broad-leaved lavender (Lavandula latifolia ).
System
Vanessa annabella carye is the sister species of V.. V. annabella was only in 1971 separated from Field as a separate species from V. carye due to differences in the genitals. Previously V. annabella has been classified as a subspecies of V. carye. Both types form the basal group within the genus Vanessa.