Vanessa (butterfly)
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| Vanessa | ||||||||||||||||||
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 Red Admiral, Vanessa atalanta
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Some 20, see text. |
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Fieldia (Nicolescu, 1979) |
Vanessa is a genus of brush-footed butterflies. Many people are familiar with it, as it has a near-global distribution and includes conspicuous species such as the red admirals (e.g., Red Admiral, Indian Red Admiral, New Zealand Red Admiral), the Kamehameha butterfly, or the painted ladies of subgenus Cynthia: Painted Lady, American Painted Lady, Australian Painted Lady, etc.
The name of the genus may have been taken from the girl's name. Though it has been suggested the name may be a variant of "Phanessa", from an Ancient Greek word for a mystic divinity, this is unlikely. The name of the divinity is actually not "Phanessa" but Phanes. Johan Christian Fabricius, the entomologist who named this genus, normally used the original forms of the names of classical divinities when he created new scientific names.
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[edit] In popular culture
John Shade discusses the Vanessa genus in reference to his wife in Nabokov's Pale Fire.[1]
[edit] Species[2]
- Vanessa abyssinica (C. & R. Felder, 1867) -- Abyssinian Admiral
- Vanessa altissima (Rosenberg & Talbot, 1914) -- Andean Lady
- Vanessa annabella (Field, 1971) -- West Coast Lady
- Vanessa atalanta (Linnaeus, 1758) -- Red Admiral
- Vanessa braziliensis (Moore, 1883) -- Brazilian Lady
- Vanessa buana (Fruhstorfer, 1898)
- Vanessa calliroe (Hübner, 1808)
- Vanessa cardui (Linnaeus, 1758) -- Painted Lady
- Vanessa carye (Hübner, 1812) -- Western Painted Lady
- Vanessa dejeanii (Godart, 1824)
- Vanessa gonerilla (Fabricius, 1775) -- New Zealand Red Admiral
- Vanessa indica (Herbst, 1794) -- Indian Red Admiral or Asian Admiral
- Vanessa itea (Fabricius, 1775) -- Australian or Yellow Admiral
- Vanessa kershawi (McCoy, 1868) -- Australian Painted Lady
- Vanessa myrinna (Doubleday, 1849) -- Banded Lady
- Vanessa samani (Hagen, 1894)
- Vanessa tameamea (Eschscholtz, 1878) -- Kamehameha
- Vanessa terpsichore (Philipi, 1859) -- Chilean Lady
- Vanessa virginiensis (Drury, 1773) -- American Painted Lady
- Vanessa vulcania (Godart, 1819) -- Canary Red Admiral
[edit] References
- ^ Nabokov, Vladimir (1992) Pale Fire. New York: Everyman's Library 133
- ^ http://www.funet.fi/pub/sci/bio/life/insecta/lepidoptera/ditrysia/papilionoidea/nymphalidae/nymphalinae/vanessa/index.html
[edit] External links
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