Types of Butterflies

Informally, butterflies present themselves as the colorful, winged insects associated with flowers and warm, sunny days.

Formal butterfly presentations commonly follow traditional scientific typology rules, organized into families, subfamilies, genera and species based on a set of shared physical characteristics. The family Pieridae, for example, consists of butterflies with predominantly white or yellow wings.

Color further distinguishes other butterfly groups such as the blue butterflies. In other instances such as the swallowtail butterflies, the shared physical characteristic might be the presence of extended wing appendages.

Six different butterfly families call North America home.

Hesperiidae (skippers): The skippers, the small brownish butterflies, also get characterized by their relatively large eyes and closed wings at rest. Spreadwing skippers are the general exception to that rule.

The top picture shows a powdered skipper, one of many Hersperiidae species. The open wings and dull color provide clues to its general family. The clubbed antennae help identify it as a butterfly rather than a moth.

Some of the common names for skippers are longtails, flashers, cloudywings, flats, sootywings, duskywings and skipperlings

Lycaenidae (gossamer-wings): Gossamer-wing butterflies, generally small in size, initially get grouped according to both color and wing appendages. butterflies.

Blue butterflies (Polyommatinae), for example, share the characteristic of males at least having blue wings.

Often identification of blue butterflies begins with a close examination of the patterns present on the underside of the wings. The video provides views of a handful of blue butterfly species with the wings folded, highlighting those patterns.

The thin, tail looking appendage on the bottom of hairstreak butterfly wings, on the other hand, usually serves as the physical characteristic uniting that subfamily.

Nymphalidae (brush-footed butterflies): The brush-footed butterflies constitute the largest butterfly family, accounting for approximately thirty percent of all North American butterfly species.

Formally divided into eleven subfamilies, their common names such as admirals, fritillaries, checkerspots, ladies, crescents, commas and tortoiseshells ring a familiar note for most butterfly enthusiasts.

Many brush-footed butterfly species have wings with an orange color, making a close examination of their wing patterns necessary for proper identification. Monarch Butterflies, Queens and Soldiers, for example, similar looking species in the danaus genus can be distinguished from each other by their wing patterns.

Papilionidae (swallowtails): Swallowtail butterflies are the dominant subfamily, with species characterized by extended appendages (tails) at the bottom of their wings.

Picture three shows the black form of an Eastern Tiger Swallowtail with the extended appendages clearly visible. Many, but not all swallowtail butterflies have black or yellow patterned wings.

Pieridae (whites and sulphurs): The white and sulphur (yellow) butterflies, easily spotted in the field, initially get identified and sorted into the family on account of their wing color. One of the most common white butterflies present in North American yards and gardens, the Cabbage White butterfly, raises young that feed on garden vegetables. Marbles, orangetips, yellows and dogfaces are common names for other butterfly groups within the Pieridae family.

Riodinidae (metalmarks): Primarily a tropical family, a small group of species populate areas along southern North America, especially the Southwest.

The links in the box point to articles providing additional, detailed coverage of butterfly families, genera and species. Collectively the articles present a compact, approximately fifty page North American butterfly field guide.

© 2005-2011. Patricia A. Michaels.