See text Vanessa is a genus of brush-footed butterflies in the tribe Nymphalini.

It has a near-global distribution and includes conspicuous species such as the red admirals (e.g., red admiral, Indian red admiral, New Zealand red admiral), the Kamehameha, and the painted ladies of the Cynthia group (formerly a subgenus): Painted lady, American painted lady, West Coast lady, Australian painted lady, etc.

In the poem Vanessa is called a "nymph" eleven times, and the genus is closely related to the previously-named genus Nymphalis.

North American species in the genus overwinter as adults.

[4] The 22 extant species are:[1] A fossil species, V. amerindica, is known from a specimen found in the Chadronian-aged Florissant Lagerstatte, from Late Eocene Colorado, and coexisted with several other extinct butterfly taxa.