At 03:38 PM 10/31/97 -0800, you wrote:

When I said 'Painted Lady' complex I was referring to Painted Lady (Vanessa
cardui), American Painted Lady (Vanessa virginiensis) and the West Coast
Lady (Vanessa annabella). The Painted Lady is a cosmopolitan butterfly and
has been seen at sea migrating in the thousands. The American Painted Lady
is sort of North American butterfly. West Coast Lady lives up to its name
for range and is a mallow/hollyhock feeder and was a cover butterfly for
Sunset magazine some time back. Any standard butterfly that covers all the
USA will show the three. All three have similar upper surfaces but the
undersurfaces differ markedly.

Bob

>At 11:51 AM 10/31/97 -0800, you wrote:
>>At 06:02 PM 10/30/97 -0800, Noyes wrote:
>>>
>>>>Can it be a Vicery(sp?)? It is a Monarch mimic, looks pretty much like it
>>>but much smaller. Also the Question Mark looks a bit similar, but is about
>>>the same size as Monarchs.
>>>
>>>
>Then Bob wrote:
>>
>>
>>Another consideration, since if I recall the original conversation
>>correctly, is the 'Painted Lady' complex......
>
>It does look closer to the markings and size of a Painted Lady. The
>markings don't quite match but the upper wings are very similar (the lower
>wings don't match). If it helps, they travel in groups of 10 or so and are
>very interactive with one another. They REALLY like the color orange and
>have been hitting on everyone's Union 76 radio antenna balls!
>
>BTW, the other day the newspaper ran a front page story on the alleged
>"vegetable oil" spill that has been covering all the seabirds here. Along
>with the story they ran a wonderful photo of an oiled bird and captioned it
>"Loon covered with oil, waiting for cleaning". Unfortunately for them, it
>was a Grebe! Close.
>
>
>Happy Halloween!
>
>Peggi
>Ben & Peggi Rodgers
>Aptos, CA (near Santa Cruz 122 W, 37 N)
>USA
>woodduck at cruzio.com
>http://www2.cruzio.com/~woodduck/
>
>
>"A bird does not sing because it has an answer,
> It sings because it has a song"
>
>