Painted lady Painted lady The Cynthia group of colourful butterflies, commonly called painted ladies, comprises a subgenus of the genus "Vanessa" in the family Nymphalidae. They are well known throughout most of the world. The group includes: The painted lady ("V. cardui") is a large butterfly (wing span ) identified by the black and white corners of its mainly deep orange, black-spotted wings. It has five white spots in the black forewing tips and while the orange areas may be pale here and there, there are no clean white dots in them. The hindwings carry four small submarginal eyespots on the dorsal
Painted lady with blue pupils. The black forewing tips have four to five white spots; usually the largest is whitish orange. The West Coast lady ("V. annabella") does not have obvious ventral eyespots. On the dorsal side, "V. anabella" lacks a white dot in the subapical orange found in "V. virginiensis", and is a purer orange color. "V. annabella" has a fully orange subapical band and leading edge on the forewing. The submarginal row of hindwing spots in "V. annabella" features three or four blue pupils. The two larger pupils in "V. annabella" are the inner spots, rather than the outer spots