Both formal and informal approaches apply when anyone explains the types of butterflies native to the world’s fields, forests and residential areas. Informally, butterfly species present themselves as the colorful, winged insects associated with flowers and warm, sunny days.
The butterfly families often get organized based on a set of shared physical characteristics such as wing color or shape. Four of those families, whites and yellows, metalmarks, skippers and swallowtails are presented on this page.
Brushfoots and Blues, Coppers and Hairstreaks can be found on their own pages.
These pictures compliment the state butterfly pages.
Whites and Yellows
Great Southern White
Pine White
Chiricahua White
Western White butterfly
Becker’s White
Checkered-white
Giant White Butterfly
Cabbage White Butterfly
Margined White
West Virginia Whites
Sara’s Orangetip.
California Marble
Barred-yellow
Boisduval’s Yellow
Angled-sulphur butterfly
Dainty Sulfur
Sleepy Orange butterfly
Lyside Sulphur
Cloudless Sulphur
Western Sulphur
Orange Sulphur
Little Yellow butterfly
The Mimosa Yellow
Tailed Orange
Swallowtail Butterflies
Swallowtail butterflies, large butterflie s characterized by extended tail-like appendages, formally divide into two subfamilies, Parnassiinae, Papilioninae.
The picture shows a Clodius parnassian
Eversmann’s Parnassian.
Pipevine Swallowtail
Polydamus Swallowtail
Zebra Swallowtails
Swallowtail caterpillars also stir the lenses of butterfly photographers. They are often big and colorful, or down right zany looking, with eye spots like the specimen in the picture.
Black Swallowtail Butterfly Caterpillar
Spicebush Swallowtail butterfly.
While Papilioniae or the group commonly called swallowtail butterflies, divide into a handful of genera, almost two-thirds of the species belong to the Papilio genus.
Indra Swallowtail
Eastern Tiger Swallowtail
dark form Eastern Tiger Swallowtail
Pale Tiger Swallowtail
Giant Swallowtail
Black Swallowtail
Anise Swallowtail
Canadian Tiger Swallowtail
Palamedes Swallowtail
Spicebush Swallowtail
Skipper Butterflies
Skipper butterflies commonly get described as small, flighty, dark winged butterflies.
Their formal classification continues to prompt debate. Generally North American populations divide into five or six subfamilies:
- Firetips (Subfamily Pyrrhopyginae)
- Giant-Skippers (Subfamily Megathyminae)
- Grass Skippers (Subfamily Hesperiinae)
- Dicot Skippers (Subfamily Eudaminae)
- Skipperlings (Subfamily Heteropterinae)
- Spread-wing Skippers (Subfamily Pyrginae)
With approximately 275 total species, (plus or minus 10 because the number of documented species varies according to source) skippers rank as the largest butterfly family.
The Little Glassywing
Fawn-spotted Skipper
Sonora Skipper
Whirabout
Firey Skipper
Silver-spotted skipper
Long-tailed Skipper
White-striped Longtail.
Northern Cloudywing
Skipperling Butterflies
Arctic Skipper
Southern Skipperling.
Two banded checkered skipper.
Horace’s Duskywing
Funereal Duskywing
Propertius duskywing
Pacuvius Duskywing
Erichson’s White Skipper
The Laviana White Skipper
The Sickle-winged Skipper
Arizona powdered skipper.
Texas Powdered Skipper
Metalmarks
Metalmarks (Riodinidae), a large family of tropical butterflies, also inhabit the southern edges of the United States.
Pixie butterfly
Mormon Metalmark
Fatal Metalmark
Red-bordered Metalmarks
Female Red-bordered Metalmark.
Blue Metalmark
Zela Metalmark
Ares Metalmark
Arizona Metalmark
Palmer’s Metalmark
Mexican Metalmark