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,
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