American Ladies Have Big Eyes

We're awash in American Lady/Vanessa virginiensis butterflies here on the New York City end of Long Island. Is it the same elsewhere in the region? This afternoon, walking ten blocks down 4th Avenue and returning on 5th Avenue, two stretches of hardscape barely relieved by minor street trees in otherwise lifeless tree pits, I saw four of them flit-speeding along low to the concrete. Yesterday at Jamaica Bay Wildlife Refuge, I saw a bunch and managed to photo a trio of them. On April 15, at Fort Tilden/Jacob Riis Beach, they were whirling inland along the beach and into the low dunes beyond.

They're not very cold hardy. (No Mourning Cloak, they.) So they move north in the spring. And this seems like a boom year.

I take the titular mnemonic from the Swift Guide to Butterflies of North America: V. virginiensis has two large eyespots on the hindwings. This is one of the major distinguishing marks in comparison with the very similar Painted Lady/V. cardui, which has four small eyespots on the hindwings.

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