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,
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.