Utah Butterflies: Pictures and Identification Help

Rocky Mountain states such as Utah rank as some of the best butterfly destinations in the United States. The east-west divide means that the eastern slopes of the state attract many of the eastern butterflies and the western slopes, valleys and fields support entirely different butterfly populations.

According to the Utah Lepidopterists’ Society:

In the north, Utah’s geographical diversity includes the eastern extension of the Great Basin approaching the western extension of the Rocky Mountains. Salt Lake and Utah Valley citizens are privileged to live in the buffer zone between these two vastly differing mountain ranges. The southern part of the state is divided amongst further montane regions intermixed with Canyon Country habitats comprising the northern section of the Colorado Plateau.

So, the types of butterflies anyone visiting Utah will see is highly dependent on the places they visit.

This introduction to Utah butterflies is organized according to family. It provides a list of the butterfly species found in the state along with a handful of butterfly pictures.

Visitors looking for additional butterfly pictures and butterfly identification help can press the green butterfly button for more information.

Utah Butterflies: Swallowtails

The list of Utah swallowtail butterflies is similar to many other Western state butterfly lists. The video clip at the top of the page shows an Indra Swallowtail. It’s one of the species with dark color wings. It’s also interesting to note that sometimes, but not always, Indra Swallowtails lack the characteristic long tails of other swallowtails.

Not many states support Old World Swallowtails, so getting a picture of one in Utah often ranks high on life lists for many butterfly enthusiasts.

• Clodius Parnassian
• Rocky Mountain Parnassian
• Pipevine Swallowtail
• Old World Swallowtail
• Black Swallowtail
• Anise Swallowtail
• Indra Swallowtail
• Western Tiger Swallowtail
• Pale Swallowtail
• Two-tailed Swallowtail

Butterflies: Whites and Yellows

Pieridae is the formal name of the family that consists of the butterflies with white wings and yellow wings. Most states have more of the yellow butterfly species. Here’s a list of the rest of the white butterflies and yellow butterflies documented in the state. Utah’s geographical diversity translates into a nice selection of butterflies with white wing color.

Yellow butterfly species are plentiful in the state. Mead’s Sulphur and Scudder’s Sulphur are Rocky Mountain specialties.

The remaining species are common in the West and South. The picture shows a Dainty Sulphur, one of the smaller yellow butterfly species.

Blues, Hairtreaks and Coppers

Almost five dozen Gossamar Wing butterflies find a home in Utah. The mountain areas insure they have habitat to support a wide variety of blue butterflies that can be also be found in other northern and southern locations. Deserts and valleys provide habitat for even more species. Arrowhead blue butterflies mostly inhabit mountain areas.

Getting side view pictures of blue butterflies helps greatly with identification, because most will show different colors and patterns. The dark spots with white outlines on the top wing, along with the white spots on the bottom wing provide good identification clues.

The long list of dotted and spotted blues might make for some identification confusion due to their very similar appearance on a side view picture. Normally there are slight differences in the orange spots on the edge of the bottom wing and slight differences in the pattern on the front wing.

Greenish Blue butterfly

Move down to the Hairsreak and Copper butterfly genera and the pattern is similar. Tourists can have the proverbial field day keeping their eyes peeled to the ground in search of all these small and beautiful butterflies. The picture shows a California Hairstreak.

A few of the species such as

Brush Footed Butterflies

A quick look down the brush foot butterfly list shows that the majority of species follow the orange wing rule of thumb. The Green Comma is one of five native comma species. Orange wing color, a relatively rough wing pattern represent the first couple of initial field identification clues.

A side view would also show the distinct comma mark present in all comma species.