Kingdom Animalia Class Insecta Family Nymphalidae | Phylum Arthropoda Order Lepidoptera Subfamily Nymphalinae | |
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Vanessa is a genus of brush-footed butterflies. 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, and the painted ladies of subgenus Cynthia: painted lady, American painted lady, West Coast lady, Australian painted lady, etc. For African admirals see genus, Antanartia. Recently, several members traditionally considered to be in the genus Antanartia have been determined to belong within the genus Vanessa.
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The name of the genus may have been taken from the girl's name. Though the name has been suggested to be a variant of "Phanessa", from the name of an Ancient Greek deity, this is unlikely. The name of the deity 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.
North American species in the genus overwinter as adults.
Species
The 22 extant species are:
Fossil species
A fossil species, V. amerindica, is known from a specimen found in the Chadronian-aged Florissant Lagerstatte, from Late Eocene Colorado, and coexisted with several other extinct butterfly taxa.
In popular culture
The fictional character John Shade discusses the genus Vanessa in reference to his wife in Nabokov's Pale Fire.