---
title: "Australian Painted Lady"
description: "Vanessa kershawi — Owady i pająki. The Australian painted lady (Vanessa kershawi) is a species of butterfly mostly confined to Australia, although westerly winds have dispersed it to islands east of Australia, including New Zealand."
canonical: https://animalchecklist.com/pl/animal/australian-painted-lady
last_updated: 2026-09-20
---

# Australian Painted Lady

> Vanessa kershawi — Owady i pająki. The Australian painted lady (Vanessa kershawi) is a species of butterfly mostly confined to Australia, although westerly winds have dispersed it to islands east of Australia, including New Zealand.

- Scientific name: *Vanessa kershawi*
- Category: `insects` (Owady i pająki)
- Habitats: unknown
- iNaturalist observations: 15717
- Wikidata: [Q390154](https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q390154)
- iNaturalist taxon: [197077](https://www.inaturalist.org/taxa/197077)

## Names

- en: Australian Painted Lady

## Countries with the most observations

AU (15292), NZ (194)

## Summary

The Australian painted lady (Vanessa kershawi) is a species of butterfly mostly confined to Australia, although westerly winds have dispersed it to islands east of Australia, including New Zealand. Debate surrounds the taxonomy of this species. Some believe that the Australian painted lady should be a subspecies of the painted lady (Vanessa cardui) due to the similarity in lifestyle and behaviour. Furthermore, the painted lady is found around the globe, but Australia is the only location in which it varies enough to be considered a separate species.
However, due to the distinct genitalia of the males, and variation…

Text: Wikipedia (en), CC BY-SA 4.0 — https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Australian_painted_lady

## Photo

![Australian Painted Lady](https://animalchecklist.com/img/animals/australian-painted-lady/medium.jpg)

Photo: Joshua S. Martin · CC0 · inaturalist — https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/215237917

## Machine access

`GET https://animalchecklist.com/api/v1/animals/australian-painted-lady?lang=pl` — see [openapi.json](https://animalchecklist.com/openapi.json).