Vanessa annabella
In 3 days ~20% in a week ~40%
The West Coast lady (Vanessa annabella) is one of three North American species of brush-footed butterflies known colloquially as the "painted ladies". V. annabella occurs throughout much of the western US and southwestern Canada. The other two species are the cosmopolitan Vanessa cardui (painted lady) and the eastern Vanessa virginiensis (American painted lady). This species has also been considered a subspecies of the South American Vanessa carye and is frequently misspelled as "anabella".
Aside from general differences in distribution, V. annabella can be distinguished from the other two painted ladies of North America as follows: Most conspicuously, it lacks obvious ventral eyespots on the hindwings; there are two large ones on V. virginiensis and four small ones on V. cardui. Like the latter, it also lacks a white dot in the pinkish-orange subapical field of the ventral and dorsal forewings. Its upperwing coloration has the purest orange of the three; the American painted lady is usually quite reddish.
A less reliable indicator is the row of black eyespots on the dorsal submarginal hindwing. These are usually of roughly equal size in V. cardui and... Wikipedia →
| # | Park | Country | Daily sighting probability |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Channel Islands National Park | 🇺🇸 United States | |
| 2 | Reserva de la Biosfera Mariposa Monarca | 🇲🇽 Mexico | |
| 3 | Grand Canyon National Park | 🇺🇸 United States | |
| 4 | Death Valley National Park | 🇺🇸 United States | |
| 5 | Sequoia and Kings Canyon National Parks | 🇺🇸 United States | |
| 6 | Redwood National Park | 🇺🇸 United States | |
| 7 | Joshua Tree National Park | 🇺🇸 United States | |
| 8 | Yosemite National Park | 🇺🇸 United States | |
| 9 | Saguaro National Park | 🇺🇸 United States | |
| 10 | Olympic National Park | 🇺🇸 United States |
| # | City | Country | Daily sighting probability |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Toluca | 🇲🇽 México | |
| 2 | Puebla | 🇲🇽 México | |
| 3 | Tijuana | 🇲🇽 México | |
| 4 | Mexico City | 🇲🇽 México | |
| 5 | San Francisco | 🇺🇸 United States | |
| 6 | San Luis Potosí | 🇲🇽 México | |
| 7 | Ciudad Juárez | 🇲🇽 México | |
| 8 | San Diego | 🇺🇸 United States | |
| 9 | Mesa | 🇺🇸 United States | |
| 10 | Los Angeles | 🇺🇸 United States |
With luck
About 10% of wildlife watchers report a West Coast Lady sighting in Sequoia and Kings Canyon National Parks on a given day, based on 7 verified sightings from GBIF citizen-science data from 2019 to 2026. It is the 95th most-seen of the 161 insects we can rate there. Over three days the chance rises to about 20%, and over a week to about 40%, if each day is a fresh chance.
November
In that month about 20% of wildlife watchers report a West Coast Lady in Sequoia and Kings Canyon National Parks on a given day, against under 5% in September–October and December–April, the lowest months.
Between 11 am and 2 pm
Across all the parks we cover, that three-hour window holds the most West Coast Lady sightings with a recorded time, and about 9 in 10 of them come between 6 am and 6 pm: it is a daytime animal.
5th of 10
Of the 10 parks where we can rate West Coast Lady sightings, Sequoia and Kings Canyon National Parks ranks 5th at about 10%. The best odds are in Channel Islands National Park (United States, about 30%), Reserva de la Biosfera Mariposa Monarca (Mexico, about 20%) and Grand Canyon National Park (United States, about 10%).
Same genus: Vanessa
The closest relatives of the West Coast Lady that you can see in Sequoia and Kings Canyon National Parks (genus Vanessa, Ladies and Related Admirals) are Painted Lady (about 20%), American Lady (about 10%) and Red Admiral (about 10%), with each one's daily chance of a sighting.
GBIF citizen-science records
It is estimated from how often the West Coast Lady is recorded against all the insects logged in Sequoia and Kings Canyon National Parks (7 verified sightings from 2019 to 2026), calibrated against known sighting rates. Figures are rounded to the nearest 10% because citizen-science data supports honest approximations, not decimals, and months with records from fewer than five people show "—". How it works.
