There are 21 Vanessa species worldwide. The genus can be split into 2 groups - the painted ladies and red admirals. Painted ladies are predominantly pink with dark brown markings, while the 11 red admiral species are black with distinctive red or orange diagonal bands on the forewings, and similarly coloured black-dotted submarginal bands on the hindwings.

The Indian red admiral is easily recognized by the broad squiggly band on the forewings, which is usually a pure bright red colour. In some specimens however the bands are orange, and the white apical spots may also be suffused with orange. The underside hindwings have a cryptic pattern that affords them excellent camouflage when at rest on tree trunks or on the ground.

Vanessa indica is distributed from India and Sri Lanka to China and Taiwan.