Painted Lady vs Red Admiral

Vanessa cardui compared with Vanessa atalanta

Taxonomic Classification

Rank	Painted Lady	Red Admiral
Kingdom same	Animalia (Animals)	Animalia (Animals)
Phylum same	Arthropoda (Arthropods)	Arthropoda (Arthropods)
Class same	Insecta (Insects)	Insecta (Insects)
Order same	Lepidoptera (Butterflies & Moths)	Lepidoptera (Butterflies & Moths)
Family same	Nymphalidae (Brush-footed Butterflies)	Nymphalidae (Brush-footed Butterflies)
Genus same	Vanessa	Vanessa
Species	Vanessa cardui	Vanessa atalanta

Evolutionary Relationship

Painted Lady and Red Admiral share a common ancestor at the Genus level: Vanessa.

Conservation Status

Painted Lady

LC — Least Concern

Red Admiral

LC — Least Concern

Physical Characteristics

Attribute	Painted Lady	Red Admiral
Diet	—	—
Average Lifespan	—	—
Average Length	—	—
Average Weight	—	—

Habitat & Geographic Range

Painted Lady

Habitat

Typically found in virtually all terrestrial and freshwater habitats.

Range

Widely distributed across Africa (South Africa), Asia (Cyprus, Taiwan), Europe (41 countries), and North America (Canada, United States).

Red Admiral

Habitat

Typically found in virtually all terrestrial and freshwater habitats.

Range

Widely distributed across Asia (Cyprus), Europe (41 countries), North America (Canada, United States), and South America (Venezuela).

Painted Lady

Painted Lady (Vanessa cardui) is classified as Least Concern (LC) on the IUCN Red List. Widespread and abundant across its range, with stable populations and no immediate conservation concerns.

Red Admiral

Red Admiral (Vanessa atalanta) is classified as Least Concern (LC) on the IUCN Red List. Widespread and abundant across its range, with stable populations and no immediate conservation concerns.

Shared Countries

Both species can be found in 44 countries:

🇦🇱 Albania 🇦🇩 Andorra 🇦🇹 Austria 🇧🇾 Belarus 🇧🇪 Belgium 🇧🇦 Bosnia and Herzegovina 🇧🇬 Bulgaria 🇨🇦 Canada 🇭🇷 Croatia 🇨🇾 Cyprus 🇨🇿 Czech Republic 🇩🇰 Denmark 🇪🇪 Estonia 🇫🇮 Finland 🇫🇷 France 🇩🇪 Germany 🇬🇷 Greece 🇭🇺 Hungary 🇮🇸 Iceland 🇮🇪 Ireland 🇮🇹 Italy 🇱🇻 Latvia 🇱🇮 Liechtenstein 🇱🇹 Lithuania 🇱🇺 Luxembourg 🇲🇹 Malta 🇲🇩 Moldova 🇲🇪 Montenegro 🇳🇱 Netherlands 🇲🇰 North Macedonia 🇳🇴 Norway 🇵🇱 Poland 🇵🇹 Portugal 🇷🇴 Romania 🇷🇺 Russia 🇷🇸 Serbia 🇸🇰 Slovakia 🇸🇮 Slovenia 🇪🇸 Spain 🇸🇪 Sweden 🇨🇭 Switzerland 🇺🇦 Ukraine 🇬🇧 United Kingdom 🇺🇸 United States