West Coast lady
The West Coast lady is a tawny orange butterfly with black markings, white spots near the wing tips and blue centred eyespots. It is one of the three painted lady butterflies of North America. It loves to bask in the sun in open places.
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Fun facts
Its name is often misspelled as anabella with one n.
It grows from egg to butterfly in about 30 to 36 days.
In the afternoon, males gather on hilltops and sunny spots and chase each other.
The mother lays her pale green eggs one by one on top of leaves.
Most asked questions about West Coast lady
?How is the West Coast lady different from the painted lady?
It has no big eyespots under its back wings and its orange is purer.
?What does the West Coast lady eat?
Adults drink nectar. Caterpillars eat mallow and nettle leaves.
For bug experts
- Scientific name
- Vanessa annabella
- Group
- Butterflies
- Family
- Nymphalidae
- Classification
- Insecta > Lepidoptera > Nymphalidae
- Lives on
- North America
Where the facts come from
- West Coast lady (Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0): what it looks like, where it lives, what it eats, sizes and fun facts, retold in simple words.
- Picture by Alan Vernon. CC BY 2.0, Wikimedia Commons. The sticker of this bug is drawn from this picture.
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