| Australian Painted Lady | |
|---|---|
| Victoria | |
| Scientific classification | |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Arthropoda |
| Class: | Insecta |
| Order: | Lepidoptera |
| Family: | Nymphalidae |
| Tribe: | Nymphalini |
| Genus: | Vanessa |
| Subgenus: | Cynthia |
| Species: | V. (C.) kershawi |
| Binomial name | |
| Vanessa (Cynthia) kershawi (McCoy, 1868) |
|
| Synonyms | |
|
Cynthia kershawi McCoy, 1868 |
|
Vanessa kershawi, commonly known as the Australian Painted Lady, is a butterfly that is mostly confined to Australia, although westerly winds have dispersed it to islands east of Australia, including New Zealand. During spring adult butterflies migrate south in large numbers from northern states of Queensland and New South Wales. In 1889, this migration was so large that trains were unable to generate sufficient traction because of the large numbers of butterflies resting on the tracks.
A major food plant is Ammobium alatum.
Vanessa kershawi is similar to the near-cosmopolitan Painted Lady V. cardui and is sometimes considered a subspecies of that butterfly. The Australian species' four ventral eyespots are less clearly defined, and it always sports at least three (often four) conspicuous blue pupil spots on each dorsal hindwings' eyespots. V. cardui has either a few tiny pupil spots, or more often none at all.