UK Butterflies
Building a Community of Responsible Butterfly Enthusiasts in Britain & Ireland
Building a Community of Responsible Butterfly Enthusiasts in Britain & Ireland
Checklist Number
59.025
This species is considered to be an extremely rare natural migrant, first seen in the British Isles around August 1828 at Withybush, near Haverfordwest in Pembrokeshire. There are less than 100 records of this species, all of which are confined to south and west coasts in both Ireland and England.
Those reaching our shores are believed to either come from the east coast of the USA, or from the Canary Isles, Madeira or Portugal, where this species is also found in small numbers. Given the similar appearance to the Painted Lady, this rare migrant is almost certainly overlooked.
This species was first defined in Drury (1773a) as shown here and as shown in this plate (type locality: New York, Maryland and Virginia).
| Family: | Nymphalidae | Rafinesque, 1815 |
| Subfamily: | Nymphalinae | Rafinesque, 1815 |
| Tribe: | Nymphalini | Rafinesque, 1815 |
| Genus: | Vanessa | Fabricius, 1807 |
| Subgenus: | ||
| Species: | virginiensis | (Drury, 1773) |
Description to be completed.
This species is a rare migrant to Britain and/or Ireland.
| 1.2 Rare Migrant |
Description to be completed.
No conservation action is relevant for this species.
All records of this species in the British Isles are from August to October, with the exception of a single suspect record in July from Kent, and another in July from East Sussex.
Description to be completed.
The primary larval foodplant is thistles (Carduus spp. and Cirsium spp.).
Description to be completed.
Description to be completed.
Description to be completed.
Description to be completed.
Description to be completed.
The following links provide additional information on this butterfly.
