| Cynthia | |
|---|---|
&sq=Qlik&lang=&file=File:2016.07.04.-26-Eilenburg-Ost--Distelfalter.jpg)
| |
| Vanessa cardui | |
Scientific classification 
| |
| Domain: | Eukaryota |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Arthropoda |
| Class: | Insecta |
| Order: | Lepidoptera |
| Family: | Nymphalidae |
| Genus: | Vanessa |
| Subgenus: | Cynthia Fabricius, 1807 |
Cynthia is a group of colourful butterfly species that used to be considered a subgenus of the genus Vanessa, in the family Nymphalidae. Before that, it was first described as a genus. Nowadays, this group is not considered a valid taxon anymore, because it is paraphyletic.[1] The name Cynthia Fabricius, 1807 is now a junior subjective synonym of Vanessa Fabricius, 1807.[2]
In English, the species of the Cynthia group are sometimes collectively referred to as the painted ladies, although the name "painted lady" usually specifically refers to the near-cosmopolitan species Vanessa cardui.
The Cynthia group includes at least five species (to which some authors add other South American Vanessa species):
- the Painted lady (Vanessa cardui), which is almost global in its distribution,
- the Australian painted lady (Vanessa kershawi), mostly present in Australia,
- the American (painted) lady (Vanessa virginiensis), mostly in North America,
- the West Coast lady (Vanessa annabella) in Western North America,
- the Western painted lady (Vanessa carye) in South America.
- ^ Wahlberg, Niklas; Rubinoff, Daniel (2011). "Vagility across Vanessa (Lepidoptera: Nymphalidae): mobility in butterfly species does not inhibit the formation and persistence of isolated sister taxa". Systematic Entomology. 36 (2): 362–370. Bibcode:2011SysEn..36..362W. doi:10.1111/j.1365-3113.2010.00566.x.
- ^ Savela, Markku. "Vanessa Fabricius, 1807". Lepidoptera and Some Other Life Forms. Retrieved 15 December 2019.