Bug FAQCanary Red Admiral
Vanessa vulcania · Order: Lepidoptera · Family: Nymphalidae
Also called: Godart's Admiral
The Canary Red Admiral is a medium-sized butterfly with a 54 to 60 mm wingspan and distinctive dark colouration and red markings. It is native to the Canary Islands (except Lanzarote) and Madeira, where its larvae feed on nettles.
Source: Wikipedia
How to recognize it
It has a darker overall colour than Vanessa indica, with a lighter red, strongly wavy band on the forewing and large spots in the narrow edge band of the hindwing; the forewing tip is more angular.
Source: Wikipedia
Size
The wingspan measures between 54 and 60 millimetres.
Source: Wikipedia
Where it lives
It lives on the Canary Islands, except Lanzarote, and on Madeira.
Source: Wikipedia
What it eats
The caterpillars feed on the nettles Urtica morifolia and Urtica urens.
Source: Wikipedia
Where it is found in the US
Recorded in 1 of 51 states and DC. Most records: California.
Darker = more records. Counts are museum and citizen-science records, not population size.
Source: GBIF
More photos
Same family (Nymphalidae)
Sources
- Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vanessa_vulcania
Look it up elsewhere: GBIF · iNaturalist · BugGuide · Wikipedia
Text written 2026-10-24 from the sources above and checked sentence by sentence against them. Data fetched 2026-10-23.