Red admiral
Vanessa atalanta
Butterfly
Fast, dark butterfly with orange bands and white forewing spots, found across North America and one of the most familiar garden butterflies. Larvae feed on plants in the nettle family (Urticaceae), chiefly stinging nettle (Urtica dioica) and false nettle (Boehmeria cylindrica). Adults are nectar generalists on many forbs but also feed heavily on tree sap, fermenting fruit, and dung, so they are not strictly flower-dependent.
Conservation
Globally secure and widespread; not a species of conservation concern. The IUCN Red List assesses it as Least Concern.
Plants in the catalog
Nectar plants · 6
Fruit plants · 1
Shelter plants · 1
Adults of overwintering nymphalids such as the red admiral shelter in the crevices and held winter foliage of mature beech and beech hedges.
Range
Wide-ranging across North America from Canada south through Mexico to Guatemala. Northern populations are migratory, moving south in autumn; produces one brood in the north and two or more broods (roughly March to October) farther south.