American Lady or Painted Lady?

13 years ago

A couple of years ago when I first started trying to identify the butterflies that I had photographed, I met the deepest frustrations in my life of being outdoors. It seemed that every one I shot had one or more nearly identical twins. The technical names of the anatomical parts used in field guides was unintelligible to me...still is. I vowed that, if I ever learned to identify the markings that differentiated one similar species from another, I would do my dead-level best to capture these differences photographically so that some other poor souls out there might have a little easier time than I did.

What I have learned is that butterflies have a forewing and a hindwing on each side of their body and, more often than not, the markings and/or coloration is totally different on the two sides.

With these two butterflies, the number and size of the eyespots visible on the underside of the hindwing is different. The American Lady usually has two eyespots while the Painted Lady usually has four.

In addition, The American Lady has a white spot visible in the orange cell of the upper forewing. This white spot is absent on the Painted Lady.

AMERICAN LADY

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AMERICAN LADY

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AMERICAN LADY

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PAINTED LADY

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PAINTED LADY

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I hope this will give help to someone out there!

Bob

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Comments (20)

minrose
13 years ago
Wow, I did not know that, good to know, thanks, awesome photos by the way.
butterflyman
13 years ago
Nice pictures - I'd like to see you do that with other butterflies that look similar. Skippers can be very hard to identify.
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Sherry, thank you so much for the ID and for the explanation of how you determine the difference. I didn't locate a photo of the wing underside and the photos of the top side of both Ladies looked very similiar to me. I agree, the underside is so colorful and different. I could hardly believe the difference when it spread its little wings and I could see the back. Going to go and correctly tag the photos right now. And thank you for the nice compliments on the photos. A picture is, indeed, worth a thousand words, especially when you're trying to ID these little guys. Got my two Passi incarnata vines planted out yesterday and hope to see a gulf frit one day, too. I planted them in a big pot and am using a wooden teepee trellis over the pot. I've never seen this vine grow so don't know if it will be enough trellis but time will tell. My garden is small and I didn't want to have it coming up in unusual spots! Hopefully, the vine roots are hardy enough that it can overwinter in the pot. Are you guys getting some of this very hot weather? Heat index here today is supposed to be between 105-110. Mary
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Wow. I wouldn't know xx Lady if they bit me on the nose, but I am enchanted with how those wings look like stained glass. What a beautiful butterfly and beautiful photo!
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bandjzmom
13 years ago
Absolutely splendid pictures Bob!! A terrific idea too! My sister just asked me yesterday about differentiating between these two butterflies. I told her about the eyespots and the white dots.~~Angie
MissSherry
13 years ago
Beautiful pictures, Bob, and instructional!

Sherry
larry_gene
13 years ago
Bob has certainly shown here why he was well-suited to author the Camera Settings...topic in our FAQ.
angie83
13 years ago
Great pics .
Angie
sweet_melissa
12 years ago
Thank you for posting this! Very helpful!
butterflymomok
12 years ago
You've added two more beautiful photos to your collection. Thanks for sharing these pics; I struggled with these for a long time. Participating in butterfly counts is a good way to get familiar with the similar BFs.
bob_71
Original Author
12 years ago
Your kind words are very important to me!

Bob
surya55_gw
10 years ago
Thanks Bob- what a great help!
Leafhead
10 years ago
Very informative. I've struggled c IDing these two butterflies since my introduction to them.
Tony G
10 years ago
VERY helpful Bob! I always tried to tell by the thickness of their forewing black markings...the PL's are thicker.

I think the white dot will be especially helpful in IDing going forward. Thank you for sharing, Tony
Monarch-Ma-so.cal
10 years ago
Bob, those are gorgeous photographs!! Many thanks for the information!! My butterfly bush was visited several days ago by what I thought were Painted Ladies, but now I'll have to check my pics to yours! I'll post some photos (one at a time-haven't figured out to post multiple pics in one post) I took the other day, but these pics pale next to yours Bob. Can anyone tell if this is painted Lady or American Lady? Maybe my pics don't show enough detail? I thought it was a large moth at first as seen in this photo, then was amazed to see the colors!
Monarch-Ma-so.cal
10 years ago
Four dots on hindwing, must be a Painted Lady?
Monarch-Ma-so.cal
10 years ago
Not good detail, but I loved her smile! I took these pics at the same time, but of several different ones who flew in together and were a group. One male wanted to fly with a Monarch, and they did briefly. It was fascinating to see them flying together for several seconds. Looked like a small guy trying to date a tall or big lady! This one looks different then the other as far as the dots on the wing. I don't know which it is, AL or PL?
Monarch-Ma-so.cal
10 years ago
another one
Monarch-Ma-so.cal
10 years ago
with a bee
Monarch-Ma-so.cal
10 years ago
This girl wanted badly to get out, I didn't know, and I think that's what attracted the PL's in the first place that day. That's the day I saw a PL trying to fly with a Monarch two times, I think they were influenced by the Monarch 'in distress' in the enclosure. The top of the enclosure is the same aluminum screening as the sides and is see-through like the sides.
I let her out after taking photos.

I put this enclosure together quickly after my first pupae was killed by a wasp in mid-pupation. I DON'T recommend putting the metal stakes on the inside of the screening as I did. I'll put the stakes on the outside of the mesh next year. The caterpillars like to hang from the metal stakes for some reason, and I had to keep shade over the rails all during the hot summer or they would have fried from the heat of the hot metal.
Monarch-Ma-so.cal
10 years ago
another picture
Monarch-Ma-so.cal
10 years ago
Last picture

This post was edited by Monarch-Ma-so.cal on Thu, Nov 7, 13 at 1:37