Vanessa (butterfly)

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Vanessa
red admiral, Vanessa atalanta
red admiral, Vanessa atalanta
Scientific classification
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Arthropoda
Class: Insecta
Order: Lepidoptera
Superfamily: Papilionoidea
Family: Nymphalidae
Subfamily: Nymphalinae
Tribe: Nymphalini
Genus: Vanessa
Fabricius, 1807
Species

Some 20, see text.

Vanessa is a genus of brush-footed butterflies. Most 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 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.

Contents

[edit] In Popular Culture

John Shade discusses the Vanessa genus in reference to his wife in Nabokov's Pale Fire. [1]

[edit] Species

[edit] References

  1. ^ See pg 133 of Nabokov, Vladimir. Pale Fire. New York: Everyman's Library 1992

[edit] External links

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