Australian painted lady Australian painted lady The Australian painted lady ("Vanessa kershawi") butterfly is mostly confined to Australia, although westerly winds have dispersed it to islands east of Australia, including New Zealand. Debate surrounds the taxonomy of this species. Some believe that the Australian painted lady should be a subspecies of the painted lady ("Vanessa cardui") due to the similarity in lifestyle and behaviour. Furthermore, the painted lady is found around the globe, but Australia is the only location in which it varies enough to be considered a separate species. However, due to the distinct genitalia of the males, and variation in colouration,
Painted lady and ventral sides. Those on the dorsal side are black, but in the summer morph sometimes small blue pupils are present. The American painted lady ("V. virginiensis") is most easily distinguishable by its two large hindwing eyespots on the ventral side. "V. virginiensis" also features a white dot within the subapical field of the forewings set in pink on the ventral side, and often as a smaller clean white dot in the orange of the dorsal side too. A less reliable indicator is the row of eyespots on the dorsal submarginal hindwing; "V. virginiensis" often has two larger outer spots