Red admiral butterfly
Vanessa atalanta
— Where the name comes from
Vanessa comes from no ancient language: it is a name Jonathan Swift invented in 1713 for a poem, assembling it from the first syllables of the name of the woman it addressed, Esther Vanhomrigh. Fabricius took it to make a butterfly genus. Atalanta is instead the huntress of myth, who ran faster than anyone and challenged her suitors to a race. This butterfly’s name is thus half literary invention and half Greek legend, and neither half says anything about the animal.
— Facts
- Group
- Insects · Insecta
- Order
- Butterflies and moths
- Habitat
- Gardens, clearings, orchards; anywhere with nettles
- Range
- Europe, Asia, North America, North Africa
- Size
- 5.5–6.5 cm wingspan
- Diet
- Nectar and fermenting fruit; nettle as a caterpillar
- Lifespan
- Up to 10 months in overwintering individuals
— Characteristics
- 01
It migrates from Africa and the Mediterranean to northern Europe each spring.
- 02
The caterpillar sews itself a tent by folding a nettle leaf.
- 03
In autumn it prefers rotting fruit, and gets drunk on it.
— What sets it apart
It performs a relay migration that no single individual completes: adults move up through Europe in spring, breed, and it is their children or grandchildren that carry on north as far as Scandinavia; in autumn the current reverses and part of the population returns south, flying as high as three thousand metres over the Alps to use the winds. For decades the return journey was thought not to exist and northern populations were assumed simply to die: entomological radar disproved that only in the 2000s.
