West Coast lady it lacks obvious ventral eyespots on the hindwings; there are two large ones on "V. virginiensis" and four small ones on "V. cardui". Like the latter, it also lacks a white dot in the pinkish-orange subapical field of the ventral and dorsal forewings. Its upperwing coloration has the purest orange of the three; the American painted lady is usually quite reddish. A less reliable indicator is the row of black eyespots on the dorsal submarginal hindwing. These are usually of roughly equal size in "V. cardui" and lack blue centers, though the summer morph may have a few tiny ones.
American painted lady has none. "V. virginiensis" also uniquely features a white dot within the forewing subapical field, set in pink on the underside and usually also in the dorsal side's orange field. The largest spot in the black forewing tips is white in "V. cardui", pale orange in this species, and orange in the West Coast species. The latter also has a purer orange background color of the dorsal side, as opposed to the darker and (especially in "V. virginiensis") redder hue of the other two. A less reliable indicator is the row of black eyespots on the dorsal submarginal hindwing. In