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,
West Coast lady West Coast lady The West Coast lady ("Vanessa annabella") is one of three North American species of brush-footed butterflies known colloquially as the "painted ladies". "V. annabella" occurs throughout much of the western US and southwestern Canada. The other two species are the cosmopolitan "Vanessa cardui" (painted lady) and the eastern "Vanessa virginiensis" (American painted lady). This species has also been considered a subspecies of the South American, "Vanessa carye", and is frequently misspelled as "anabella". Aside from general differences in distribution, "V. annabella" can be distinguished from the other two painted ladies of North America as follows: Most conspicuously,