Regional guide

Butterflies of the World

Around 17,500 butterfly species are known worldwide, and they fly on every continent except Antarctica, from the arctic tundra to the rainforests of the Amazon, where a single Peruvian reserve holds more species than the whole of Europe. This hub links to a guide for each country, listing its butterflies by family, its national and signature species, the best season to see them and the rare ones, with links to full profiles with pictures.

Species worldwideAround 17,500 described, in six families

Richest countriesPeru and Colombia, each with more than 3,500 species

Largest butterflyQueen Alexandra's Birdwing of Papua New Guinea, wingspan to 25 cm

Smallest butterflyWestern Pygmy Blue, wingspan about 12 mm

Longest migrationPainted Lady, up to 15,000 km between Africa and the Arctic over several generations

Continent with noneAntarctica

On this page

Butterflies by country
Butterflies of the world at a glance
How to use the country guides
Where the world's butterflies are richest
The largest, smallest and most famous butterflies
Seasons and migrations around the world
Threatened butterflies around the world
How to identify a butterfly anywhere in the world
Frequently asked questions

Butterflies of the world at a glance

Roughly 17,500 butterfly species have been described, and new ones are still named every year, mostly from tropical mountains. All of them belong to six families. The brush-footed butterflies (Nymphalidae) are the biggest family, with over 6,000 species that include the morphos, the longwings, the admirals and the milkweed butterflies. The gossamer-winged blues, coppers and hairstreaks (Lycaenidae) come close behind, followed by the skippers, then the whites and sulphurs, the metalmarks, which are overwhelmingly South American, and the swallowtails, the smallest family but the one with the largest and most spectacular species, the birdwings and the apollos.

Diversity is heavily skewed toward the tropics. The Neotropics, from Mexico to Argentina, hold close to half of all species; tropical Africa and tropical Asia share most of the rest, while the whole of Europe has fewer than 500 species and North America north of Mexico about 750.

How to use the country guides

Each country below has its own page. It lists the butterflies recorded there family by family, with the scientific name beside every common name, and marks the species that are endemic to that country or only occasional vagrants. Names that link open a full profile with photographs of the egg, caterpillar, chrysalis and adult, the host plants, the range and the look-alikes. The text covers the climate and habitats, the signature species and where to see them, the butterfly calendar, gardening and the threatened species, and a sidebar links to neighbouring countries. Readers in the United States should start with the separate hub for butterflies in the United States, which has a page for every state.

Where the world's butterflies are richest

The Andean and Amazonian countries of South America are the butterfly capital of the planet. Peru and Colombia each have more than 3,500 species, Ecuador packs nearly as many into a far smaller area, and Brazil is home to over 3,000, among them the Blue Morpho, the Glasswing, the Postman and the Malachite. Central America is nearly as rich for its size: Costa Rica alone has around 1,500 species, and Mexico about 2,000 plus the winter colonies of the Monarch.

Blue Morpho Butterfly — Menelaus blue morpho (Morpho menelaus) with the wings open: metallic blue framed by a dark brown border · Blue Morpho profile →

In the Old World the tropical belt of Africa, from Ghana through the Congo basin to Uganda and Kenya, holds around 4,000 species, including the continent's giant swallowtails and its charaxes. India has some 1,300, Malaysia and Indonesia share the birdwings of Wallace's islands, and Papua New Guinea is home to the largest butterfly on Earth. Temperate countries have far shorter lists but famous butterflies of their own: the United Kingdom has about 60 resident species, Japan around 250, and Australia roughly 400, many of them found nowhere else.

The largest, smallest and most famous butterflies

The biggest butterfly in the world is Queen Alexandra's Birdwing, a swallowtail of the lowland forests of eastern Papua New Guinea whose females can span 25 centimetres and more. Its relatives the Goliath Birdwing of New Guinea and Rajah Brooke's Birdwing of Borneo and Malaysia are almost as large, and Africa's Giant Swallowtail is the biggest butterfly of that continent. At the opposite extreme the Western Pygmy Blue of the American deserts spans barely 12 millimetres. The morphos of Central and South America are probably the most photographed butterflies anywhere, their metallic blue made by the structure of the wing scales rather than pigment, while the Glasswing has almost no scales and transparent wings. In Europe the Apollo of the mountains and the Common Yellow Swallowtail, which ranges right across Eurasia to Japan and into North America, are the classic prizes, and in Australia the electric-blue Ulysses is the emblem of tropical Queensland.

Seasons and migrations around the world

In the temperate zones the butterfly season runs from spring to early autumn, peaking in June and July in the north and in December and January south of the equator. In the tropics butterflies fly all year, but numbers surge with the rains and fall in the dry season, when many species hide away as adults or as dormant pupae. The best-known migrations are the Monarch's autumn flight from Canada and the United States to the mountains of central Mexico, and the Painted Lady's multi-generation circuit between tropical Africa and northern Europe, which in some years carries it as far as the Arctic Circle and back over a round trip of about 15,000 kilometres. India's milkweed butterflies move between the Ghats with the monsoon, and pierid whites cross Africa and Sri Lanka in huge numbers in some years. How butterflies survive the cold, and why some fly thousands of kilometres instead, is covered in the guides to butterfly migration and where butterflies go in the winter.

Threatened butterflies around the world

Butterflies are declining on every continent, mainly through the loss of habitat to farming, logging and building, and increasingly through climate change and pesticides. Some of the most spectacular species are among the most threatened: Queen Alexandra's Birdwing survives in a few hundred square kilometres of forest that is being cleared for oil palm, the Apollo has vanished from much of lowland Europe and is protected across its range, and the Homerus Swallowtail of Jamaica, the largest butterfly in the Americas, clings on in two mountain refuges. Long-running monitoring in the United Kingdom and the Netherlands shows that even common grassland butterflies have lost much of their abundance since the 1970s. Every country page names the species at risk there, and the guide to butterfly host plants explains the single most useful thing a gardener anywhere can do: grow the native plants the caterpillars need.

Butterflies by country

How to identify a butterfly anywhere in the world

Begin with the family, because the same six families occur everywhere: tailed giants are swallowtails, small blues and coppers are gossamer-wings, stout fast fliers with hooked antennae are skippers, and yellow or white butterflies are almost always pierids. Then open the guide for the country you are in, since the candidate list shrinks enormously once you know where a butterfly was seen. Note the underside as well as the upperside, the season, the habitat and the plant it was on, and compare the closest profiles. Where a page marks a species as endemic or vagrant, use that as a further clue: an endemic is found only in that country, while a vagrant is a rare visitor that turns up mainly in migration years.

Frequently asked questions about the butterflies of the world

How many butterfly species are there in the world?

Around 17,500 butterfly species have been described worldwide, and estimates that allow for undescribed tropical species run to 20,000. They belong to six families, of which the brush-footed butterflies (Nymphalidae) and the gossamer-winged butterflies (Lycaenidae) are the largest. Butterflies are found on every continent except Antarctica.

Which country has the most butterfly species?

Peru and Colombia have the most butterfly species of any country, each with more than 3,500 recorded. Ecuador and Brazil follow closely, so the Andean and Amazonian countries of South America hold almost half of all butterflies. In Africa the richest countries are in the Congo basin and East Africa, and in Asia they are Indonesia, Malaysia and India.

What is the largest butterfly in the world?

Queen Alexandra's Birdwing (Ornithoptera alexandrae) is the largest butterfly in the world. Females can have a wingspan of 25 centimetres or more and live only in a small area of lowland rainforest in Oro Province, Papua New Guinea. It is endangered, and trade in the species is banned under CITES. The Goliath Birdwing and Rajah Brooke's Birdwing are close behind.

What is the smallest butterfly in the world?

The Western Pygmy Blue (Brephidium exilis) of the deserts of the southwestern United States and Mexico is generally considered the smallest butterfly in the world, with a wingspan of around 12 millimetres, and some individuals are smaller still. Several other tiny blues, including the Grass Jewel of Africa and Asia, are of a similar size.

Are there butterflies in Antarctica?

No. Antarctica is the only continent with no butterflies, because there are no flowering plants for caterpillars or adults to feed on and the climate is too cold for them to complete a life cycle. Butterflies do live in the Arctic, however; several species of arctic blues, sulphurs and fritillaries fly in Alaska, Canada, Greenland and northern Scandinavia.

Which butterfly makes the longest migration?

The Painted Lady makes the longest known butterfly migration, a round trip of up to 15,000 kilometres between tropical Africa and northern Europe, sometimes reaching the Arctic Circle, completed over several generations. The Monarch's single-generation flight of up to 4,800 kilometres from Canada and the United States to central Mexico is the longest made by an individual butterfly.

Do the same butterflies live in different countries?

Some do. The Painted Lady is found on every continent except Antarctica and South America, the Monarch has spread from the Americas to Australia, New Zealand, Hawaii and Spain, and the Common Yellow Swallowtail ranges from Britain to Japan and North America. Most species, however, have limited ranges, and many, especially on islands and mountains, live in only one country.

What is the rarest butterfly in the world?

Several butterflies are known from only a few hundred individuals. The Palos Verdes Blue of California was thought extinct until it was rediscovered in 1994, Queen Alexandra's Birdwing survives in a few hundred square kilometres of Papua New Guinea, and the Homerus Swallowtail of Jamaica is confined to two small mountain areas. Many rare tropical species have been seen only a handful of times.

When is the best time of year to see butterflies?

In Europe, North America and East Asia the best months are June to August, when the largest number of species fly together. In the southern hemisphere the peak is December to February. In the tropics butterflies fly all year but are most abundant in the weeks after the rains begin, so the best season depends on the local wet and dry seasons of each country.

Which butterfly families are found worldwide?

All six butterfly families occur on more than one continent. The brush-footed butterflies, gossamer-winged butterflies, skippers, whites and sulphurs, and swallowtails are found on every continent except Antarctica. The metalmarks are the exception in practice: more than 90 per cent of their species live in Central and South America, with only a few dozen in the rest of the world.

Published August 25, 2023 · Last updated September 21, 2026