ButterflyDB
116 butterfly and moth species with range, habitat, and natural history. From Monarchs to Sunset Moths.
Featured
Monarch
The most famous butterfly in the world. They migrate up to 4,800 km from Canada ...
Morpho (Blue)
Their stunning iridescent blue comes not from pigment but from microscopic scale...
Painted Lady
The most widely distributed butterfly on Earth, found on every continent except ...
Sunset Moth
Often called the most beautiful lepidopteran in the world. Their wings display t...
Birdwing (Queen Alexandra)
The largest butterfly in the world, with females reaching 31 cm wingspan. Discov...
Dead Leaf Butterfly
The ultimate master of camouflage. When wings are closed, they look exactly like...
Glasswing
Their wings are literally transparent — the tissue between veins lacks the color...
Hummingbird Hawk-moth
Looks and behaves exactly like a hummingbird — hovers in front of flowers, beats...
Bombycidae (1)
Choreutidae (1)
Erebidae (7)
Giant Leopard Moth
Their striking white wings covered in black spots and rings make them one of the...
Cinnabar Moth
Named after cinnabar, the red mineral, for their striking red-and-black wing pat...
Garden Tiger Moth
A strikingly colored moth with cream and brown forewings and bright orange hindw...
Black Witch
A large, dark moth with a wingspan that can approach that of a small bat. In Mex...
Spongy Moth
A moth whose hairy caterpillars can strip entire forests of leaves during outbre...
White Witch
The lepidopteran with the largest known wingspan. Its white or pale gray wings a...
Vampire Moth
A brown moth whose barbed proboscis is strong enough to pierce fruit skin. Males...
Geometridae (2)
Hesperiidae (1)
Lycaenidae (9)
Large Blue
A blue butterfly with an extraordinary life cycle. Its caterpillars trick red an...
Common Blue
The most widespread blue butterfly in Europe. Males are violet-blue above, while...
Karner Blue
A small blue butterfly that depends entirely on wild lupine, the only plant its ...
Holly Blue
A pale blue butterfly often seen flying high around hedges and gardens. It has t...
Adonis Blue
The males are a dazzling sky blue, among the most brilliant of all European butt...
Xerces Blue
A small blue butterfly that once lived on the sand dunes of San Francisco. As th...
Harvester
The only butterfly in North America with carnivorous caterpillars. They feed on ...
Western Pygmy Blue
One of the smallest butterflies in the world, with a wingspan of only around one...
Small Copper
A small but brilliant butterfly with fiery copper-orange forewings edged and spo...
Noctuidae (2)
Notodontidae (1)
Nymphalidae (37)
Monarch
The most famous butterfly in the world. They migrate up to 4,800 km from Canada ...
Morpho (Blue)
Their stunning iridescent blue comes not from pigment but from microscopic scale...
Painted Lady
The most widely distributed butterfly on Earth, found on every continent except ...
Peacock Butterfly
Named for their spectacular eye-spots that resemble peacock feathers. When threa...
Emperor (Purple)
The most prized butterfly among British collectors. Males have stunning purple i...
Glasswing
Their wings are literally transparent — the tissue between veins lacks the color...
Red Admiral
One of the most widespread and recognizable butterflies. Males are territorial a...
Comma
Named for the small white comma-shaped mark on their otherwise cryptic brown und...
Small Tortoiseshell
Once the most common butterfly in Britain, populations have declined dramaticall...
Marbled White
Despite the name, they are not actually white butterflies but belong to the Saty...
Blue Morpho (Menelaus)
One of the most intensely blue of all morpho species. Their structural color is ...
Dead Leaf Butterfly
The ultimate master of camouflage. When wings are closed, they look exactly like...
Mourning Cloak
One of the longest-lived butterflies at 10-12 months. They hibernate as adults i...
Viceroy
Long thought to be a harmless mimic of the toxic Monarch, but research in 1991 s...
Zebra Longwing
The state butterfly of Florida. They are one of the few butterflies that eat pol...
Postman Butterfly
Named for their habit of following the same route between flowers every day, lik...
Malachite
Named for their beautiful green color resembling the mineral malachite. Their la...
Monarch (South American)
Formerly considered a subspecies of the North American Monarch but elevated to f...
Common Buckeye
Named for their large, colorful eyespots that resemble the eye of a deer (buck e...
Question Mark
Named for the small silver mark on its hindwing underside, shaped like a questio...
Red-spotted Purple
A blue-black butterfly with iridescent blue hindwings and red-orange spots on it...
White Admiral
A graceful woodland butterfly, black with a bold white band across both wings. I...
Great Spangled Fritillary
A large orange butterfly with black markings above and silver spots on the under...
Gulf Fritillary
A bright orange butterfly whose underside is covered in elongated silver spots. ...
Julia Butterfly
A bright orange longwing with long, narrow wings. Its caterpillars feed on passi...
Speckled Wood
A brown butterfly dotted with cream spots, perfectly matched to the dappled ligh...
Meadow Brown
One of the most common butterflies in European grasslands, brown with an orange ...
Owl Butterfly
A large butterfly named for the huge eyespots on the underside of its hindwings,...
Plain Tiger
A close relative of the Monarch, orange with black and white wing tips. Its cate...
Queen
A close relative of the Monarch, deep brown-orange with white spots on its black...
Paper Kite
A large white and black butterfly that floats slowly through the air like a shee...
Map Butterfly
A famous example of seasonal polyphenism. The spring generation is orange with b...
Large Tortoiseshell
A larger, duller relative of the Small Tortoiseshell, orange with black spots an...
Glanville Fritillary
Named after Eleanor Glanville, a seventeenth-century English collector. Its popu...
Variable Cracker
A gray, finely patterned butterfly that rests head-down on tree trunks, where it...
Eighty-eight Butterfly
A small butterfly named for the striking black-and-white pattern on its hindwing...
American Lady
A close relative of the Painted Lady. It can be told apart by two large eyespots...
Papilionidae (18)
Swallowtail (Old World)
One of the most recognized butterflies with distinctive tail-like extensions on ...
Ulysses Butterfly
The iconic butterfly of tropical Queensland, Australia. Their electric blue uppe...
Birdwing (Queen Alexandra)
The largest butterfly in the world, with females reaching 31 cm wingspan. Discov...
Cairns Birdwing
The largest butterfly in Australia with a 15 cm wingspan. Males are brilliant gr...
Rajah Brooke Birdwing
Named after Sir James Brooke, the White Rajah of Sarawak. Males have spectacular...
Eastern Tiger Swallowtail
A large yellow swallowtail with bold black tiger stripes, one of the most famili...
Black Swallowtail
A black swallowtail with rows of yellow spots and a band of blue on the hindwing...
Giant Swallowtail
One of the largest butterflies in North America, dark brown with broad yellow ba...
Pipevine Swallowtail
A black swallowtail with shimmering iridescent blue hindwings. Its caterpillars ...
Zebra Swallowtail
A striking swallowtail with black and white zebra stripes and very long, sword-l...
Scarce Swallowtail
A pale yellow swallowtail with black tiger stripes and long tails, famous for it...
Apollo
A white mountain butterfly with black spots and bright red eyespots on its hindw...
Common Mormon
A black swallowtail famous in genetics for its female forms. Some females look l...
Goliath Birdwing
The second largest butterfly in the world after the Queen Alexandra Birdwing. Fe...
Kaiser-i-Hind
A rare swallowtail whose name means Emperor of India. Its wings are iridescent g...
Emerald Swallowtail
Its brilliant green bands are not made by green pigment. Microscopic bowl-shaped...
Homerus Swallowtail
The largest swallowtail in the Americas, found only in the mountains of Jamaica....
Spicebush Swallowtail
A black swallowtail with blue-green clouding on the hindwings. Its caterpillars ...
Pieridae (8)
Brimstone
Likely the original butter fly — the word butterfly may derive from butter-colou...
Cabbage White
The butterfly most people see most often. Introduced to North America in the 186...
Orange Tip
One of the first signs of spring in Europe. Only the males have the bright orang...
Clouded Yellow
A deep yellow butterfly with black wing borders that migrates north from souther...
Large White
A familiar white butterfly whose caterpillars are a pest of cabbages and other b...
Black-veined White
A large white butterfly with distinctive black veins across its almost scaleless...
Cloudless Sulphur
A large, bright lemon-yellow butterfly common from Argentina to the southern Uni...
Common Jezebel
A white butterfly from above, but its underside is splashed with brilliant yello...
Plutellidae (1)
Prodoxidae (1)
Pyralidae (1)
Riodinidae (1)
Saturniidae (9)
Atlas Moth
The largest moth in the world by wing area, reaching 400 sq cm. Their wingtips r...
Luna Moth
One of the most beautiful moths with pale green wings and long, elegant tails. T...
Cecropia Moth
The largest native moth in North America with a wingspan up to 16 cm. Their cate...
Polyphemus Moth
Named after the Cyclops Polyphemus from Greek mythology for the large eyespots o...
Io Moth
Males are bright yellow, females are reddish-brown — dramatic sexual dimorphism....
Rosy Maple Moth
A small silk moth with a fuzzy yellow body and wings of pink and yellow, often c...
Comet Moth
One of the largest silk moths in the world, found only in the rainforests of Mad...
Hercules Moth
The largest moth in Australia and one of the largest in the world by wing area. ...
Emperor Moth
The only member of the silk moth family resident in Britain. Each wing carries a...
Sesiidae (1)
Sphingidae (9)
Death Head Hawkmoth
Famous for the skull-like pattern on their thorax, featured in The Silence of th...
Hummingbird Hawk-moth
Looks and behaves exactly like a hummingbird — hovers in front of flowers, beats...
Lime Hawk-moth
Their green-tinged wings blend perfectly with lime tree leaves. Their caterpilla...
Elephant Hawk-moth
One of the most colorful moths, with bright pink and olive-green coloring that l...
Poplar Hawk-moth
A large gray hawk-moth that rests with its hindwings pushed forward ahead of its...
Tobacco Hornworm Moth
The adult is a large gray hawk-moth with orange spots along its abdomen. Its lar...
White-lined Sphinx
A hawk-moth with white-lined brown forewings and a pink band on each hindwing. I...
Oleander Hawk-moth
A large hawk-moth with intricate swirling patterns of green, olive, and pink on ...
Morgans Sphinx
A hawk-moth famous for confirming a prediction by Charles Darwin. In 1862 Darwin...