Insects and Spiders - Butterflies, Moths, and Caterpillars : American Lady Butterfly
Vanessa virginiensis
There are two clues in telling American Lady butterflies from Painted Lady butterflies. One is that the American Lady has tiny white spots on one of the orange sections of the upper wings (circled).
An American Lady Butterfly on cudweed. Both Wright's Cudweed and Bioletti's Cudweed are important for food and nesting.
The second way to distinguish the American Lady butterfly is that the underside of the wings has two "eye spots" (circled). The Painted Lady butterfly has four of these spots.
An American Lady Butterfly nest on Bioletti's Cudweed.
A caterpillar near its nest on Bioletti's Cudweed.
The dark bits on the remains of the nest are frass--basically the droppings from the larvae.