New Zealand red admiral
| New Zealand red admiral | |
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| Scientific classification | |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Arthropoda |
| Class: | Insecta |
| Order: | Lepidoptera |
| Family: | Nymphalidae |
| Genus: | Vanessa |
| Species: | V. gonerilla |
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Vanessa gonerilla (Fabricius, 1775) |
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The New Zealand red admiral (Vanessa gonerilla) is a butterfly endemic to New Zealand. Its Māori name is kahukura, which means "red cloak". The red admiral is a member of the family Nymphalidae, the subfamily Nymphalinae and the tribe Nymphalini. There are two subspecies: V. g. gonerilla, which occurs on the mainland of New Zealand, and V. g. ida, which occurs on the Chatham Islands.
The red admiral is a medium-sized butterfly with a 50–60 mm wingspan. The top side of the forewings is mostly black, with a central bright red bar running back from the front edge. There are white spots, fringed with light blue, near the forewing tips. The rear wings are a dark reddish brown with a red patch containing four black circles; the centre of each circle is pale blue.
The underside of the rear wings is a mottled collection of white/brown/black shapes, which camouflages the butterfly when at rest. When revealed, the underside of the forewings display a striking blue eyespot bracketed by white and red arcs.
Folded camouflaged wings
Eyespot
Red admirals are relatively common throughout New Zealand where their food plants occur. Anecdotal evidence suggest their numbers have been declining since the early 1900s, and the species has reportedly disappeared from Auckland. This is linked to spraying and the decline of native nettle plants, although nettle numbers are also affected by drought; nettle species are now being cultivated by NZ Forest & Bird and some councils as a butterfly food. Another factor in red admiral decline has been exotic parasitic wasps. The Australian white-spotted ichneumon wasp Echthromorpha intricatoria is self introduced, and the pteromalid wasp Pteromalus puparum was introduced by government entomologists in 1932–33 to control the adventive cabbage white butterfly (Pieris rapae), a serious agricultural pest in New Zealand. One study at Banks Peninsula noted that 1–19% of red admiral pupae were parasitised by P. puparum, and 20–30% by E. intricatoria.
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Wikipedia