American painted lady the American painted lady, those on the opposite ends of the row are often larger and have blue "pupils". In "V. annabella", this applies to the inner two spots, while in "V. cardui" some of the black eyespots may have tiny blue pupils in the summer morph, but usually have none at all, and the eyespots themselves are all roughly the same size. The size of the wings are about 5 cm (2 in) across. American painted lady The American painted lady or American lady ("Vanessa virginiensis") is a butterfly found throughout North America. The larvae feed on various Asteraceae,
Australian painted lady to lowered temperatures. This demonstrates the phenotypic plasticity, or the tendency for visible traits to vary with changing environmental conditions, of the painted lady butterflies. It also suggests that the painted lady is the ancestral form, and environmental stress slowly drove speciation by adaptation into the Australian painted lady. In other words, the Australian painted lady most likely evolved from the painted lady due to the environmental conditions in Australia. The Australian painted lady's distribution is restricted to Australia. The closely related "V. cardui" is found throughout the rest of the world, so the two species have an allopatric distribution.