New Zealand red admiral
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Order: Lepidoptera
Family: Nymphalidae

[Photo] New Zealand Red Admiral (Vanessa gonerilla), in Wellington, New Zealand. Date 6 Jan 2007. Author: Tony Wills.

Copyright (C) 2007 Tony Wills Permission is granted to copy, distribute and/or modify this document under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License, Version 1.2 or any later version published by the Free Software Foundation; with no Invariant Sections, no Front-Cover Texts, and no Back-Cover Texts. A copy of the license is included in the section entitled "GNU Free Documentation License".

The New Zealand red admiral, Vanessa gonerilla syn. Bassaris gonerilla, is a butterfly that is endemic to New Zealand. The M??ori name is kahukura which means red cloak. The red admiral is a member of the family Nymphalidae, the sub-family Nymphalinae as well as the tribe Nymphalini.

Ongaonga, Urtica ferox is the main food plant for red admiral larvae. The larvae can also eat other Urtica species.

Red admirals occur most frequently during summer and may live for several months. The adults feed on nectar from various plant species.

There are two sub-species of Vanessa gonerilla, Vanessa gonerilla gonerilla which occurs on the mainland of New Zealand and Vanessa gonerilla ida which occurs on the Chatham Islands.

Red admirals are relatively common throughout New Zealand where their food plants occur.

More Photos at http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:Vanessa_gonerilla

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_Zealand_red_admiral

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