Butterflies in Romania

On this page

1. Butterflies found in Romania
2. Butterflies of Romania at a glance
3. Signature Romanian butterflies
4. The Romanian butterfly calendar
5. Where to see butterflies in Romania
6. Host plants and butterfly gardening in Romania
7. Rare and threatened butterflies in Romania
8. How to identify butterflies in Romania
9. Frequently asked questions

Butterflies of Romania at a glance

Romania lies in south-eastern Europe, not the south, and that position is the key to its butterflies. The Carpathians curve through the middle of the country, holding the largest tracts of old-growth forest left in the European Union and alpine meadows on the Retezat, Făgăraș, Bucegi and Rodna massifs. Inside the arc, the Transylvanian plateau still has the kind of unfertilised, hand-cut hay meadow that has almost vanished elsewhere. To the east lie the dry steppe hills of Dobrogea, the Black Sea coast and the reed beds and willow forests of the Danube Delta.

More than 200 species have been recorded, and the brush-footed butterflies account for nearly half of them: some 25 fritillaries, a dozen Erebia ringlets in the mountains, the graylings and browns of the steppe, and the emperors, gliders and admirals of the river forests. The blues, coppers and hairstreaks follow with more than 50 species, then the skippers, the whites and sulphurs, six swallowtails and apollos and the Duke of Burgundy.

What makes Romania special is less the total than the survivors. Species that western Europe lost to drainage, fertiliser and early mowing, the Large Copper, Scarce Fritillary, Danube Clouded Yellow and the Large Blues among them, still fly here in numbers.

Signature Romanian butterflies

The Danube Clouded Yellow (Colias myrmidone) is Romania's most important butterfly. A deep orange sulphur of flowery, lightly grazed hillsides where its host plant, a shrubby broom, grows, it has collapsed across central Europe and is now critically endangered in the EU; the meadows of central Transylvania hold most of what is left. The Large Copper, a blazing orange butterfly of wet meadows and river margins, and the Clouded Yellow, a migrant from the south, share the same lowland grassland.

The Carpathians add the Apollo and the Clouded Apollo, both in decline, and a run of mountain ringlets: the Black Ringlet, the Sudeten Ringlet of the Rodna range, the Silky, Dewy and Marbled Ringlets and the Common Brassy Ringlet on the highest turf. Along the rivers the Purple Emperor and Lesser Purple Emperor are joined by Freyer's Purple Emperor, a Danube speciality that breeds on white willow in the delta, and by the Hungarian Glider and Pallas' Sailer, black-and-white butterflies that glide along the forest edges of the south-west.

Dobrogea, the dry corner between the Danube and the Black Sea, has butterflies found nowhere else in the country: the Eastern Festoon, Nogel's Hairstreak, Zephyr Blue and the Lattice Brown. Everywhere else the familiar Europeans fill the meadows: Swallowtail and Scarce Swallowtail, Peacock, Marbled White, Meadow Brown and a bewildering choice of blues.

The Romanian butterfly calendar

Winters are cold and continental, so the season starts late and fast. The hibernators, Brimstone, Peacock, Small Tortoiseshell, Comma and the Mourning Cloak, appear on the first warm days of March. April brings the festoons to Dobrogea and the south-west, the Orange-tip, Green Hairstreak and Grizzled Skipper to the lowlands, and the first Clouded Apollos to the mountain woods in May.

June and July are the great months. On the Transylvanian hay meadows, cut only after midsummer, the fritillaries, blues, coppers, skippers and browns fly together, and a good site can produce 80 or more species in a day. The Danube Clouded Yellow has two broods, in late May and again in late July, and the Large Blues fly in July on thyme and burnet. The high Carpathians peak from mid-July to mid-August with the ringlets and the Apollo, while Dobrogea is best in spring, before the steppe dries out.

Autumn belongs to the migrants. Painted Ladies, Red Admirals and Clouded Yellows drift south along the Black Sea coast and the Danube in September, and the second broods of the Map, the Scarce Swallowtail and the Queen of Spain Fritillary fly into October. Our guide to the butterfly season explains how weather and altitude shift these dates.

Where to see butterflies in Romania

The best butterfly habitat in Romania is farmed rather than wild: hay meadows, wood pasture and the grazed hills of the Saxon villages, where traditional management has survived by accident of history.

• Târnava Mare and the Saxon villages of Transylvania — around Sighișoara, Viscri and Saschiz, the finest lowland butterfly grassland in Europe, with Danube Clouded Yellow, Large Copper, Scarce and Dusky Large Blues and dozens of fritillaries.
• Retezat National Park — glacial lakes and alpine meadows for the Carpathian ringlets, Apollo and Cranberry Fritillary in July and August.
• Bucegi and Piatra Craiului — accessible alpine pasture near Brașov for the same mountain species.
• Măcin Mountains and Dobrogea — the steppe specialities, Eastern Festoon, Nogel's Hairstreak and Zephyr Blue, in April and May.
• Danube Delta — Freyer's Purple Emperor, Large Copper and Lesser Fiery Copper along the willow-lined channels.

The fauna continues into the Pannonian plain of Hungary and the Balkan mountains of Bulgaria; the rest of the continent is covered on our Butterflies of the World hub.

Host plants and butterfly gardening in Romania

Most Romanian butterflies still live in the countryside rather than in gardens, so the most useful host plants are the ones a smallholder can keep in an orchard margin or a late-cut meadow.

• Stinging nettle — Peacock, Small Tortoiseshell, Comma, Red Admiral and Map.
• Violets — the Argynnis and Boloria fritillaries; plantain and cow-wheat for the Heath and Glanville Fritillaries.
• Great water dock in a damp corner — the Large Copper; sorrel for the Small Copper and Sooty Copper.
• Wild thyme, gentians and great burnet — the four Large Blues, each of which also needs its own species of red ant, so these are meadow plants rather than pot plants.
• Birthwort (Aristolochia) — the Eastern and Southern Festoons.
• Fennel, wild carrot and dill — the Swallowtail; blackthorn, plum and hawthorn for the Scarce Swallowtail and the hairstreaks.

For nectar, a Romanian meadow needs no help: knapweed, scabious, marjoram, sainfoin and thistles carry the summer, and fallen plums and pears in September pull in the Comma, Red Admiral and Camberwell Beauty before they hibernate.

Rare and threatened butterflies in Romania

Romania's butterflies are among the best preserved in Europe, but the reasons they survived, poverty, small farms and hand labour, are disappearing. Since the country joined the EU in 2007, meadows have been fertilised, mown early with machinery or abandoned to scrub, sheep flocks have grown, and illegal logging has bitten into the Carpathian forests. The Danube Clouded Yellow has already vanished from most of its Romanian sites and is now the focus of an EU action plan; its future depends on light grazing that keeps its broom bushes in the open.

A dozen Romanian species are protected under the EU Habitats Directive, including the Large Copper, Scarce Fritillary, Marsh Fritillary, Clouded Apollo, Apollo, the Large Blue and its Scarce, Dusky and Alcon relatives, and Freyer's Purple Emperor. Nogel's Hairstreak, confined in Europe to Dobrogea and a few Ukrainian sites, is one of the continent's rarest butterflies, and the Sudeten Ringlet survives in Romania only in the Rodna Mountains.

The hopeful side is that the habitat still exists. Projects in the Saxon villages pay farmers to keep cutting late and grazing lightly, and national parks such as Retezat shelter the alpine species.

Butterflies found in Romania

188 species listed for Romania, grouped by family. Linked names have a full profile on this site with pictures of every life stage.

Brush-Footed (Nymphalidae)

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• Assmann's Fritillary (Melitaea britomartis)
• Black Ringlet (Erebia melas)
• Blind Ringlet (Erebia pharte)
• Cardinal (Argynnis pandora)
• Chestnut Heath (Coenonympha glycerion)
• Common Brassy Ringlet (Erebia cassioides)
• Compton Tortoiseshell (Nymphalis vaualbum)
• Cranberry Fritillary (Boloria aquilonaris)
• Dark Green Fritillary (Speyeria aglaja)
• Dark Rock Brown (Chazara briseis)
• Delattin's Grayling (Hipparchia volgensis)
• Dewy Ringlet (Erebia pandrose)
• Dryad (Minois dryas)
• Dusky Meadow Brown (Hyponephele lycaon)
• European Nettle-tree Butterfly (Libythea celtis)
• False Grayling (Arethusana arethusa)
• False Heath Fritillary (Melitaea diamina)
• Freyer's Fritillary (Melitaea arduinna)
• Freyer's Purple Emperor (Apatura metis)
• Glanville Fritillary (Melitaea cinxia)
• Grayling (Hipparchia semele)
• Great Banded Grayling (Brintesia circe)
• Heath Fritillary (Melitaea athalia)
• Hedge Brown (Pyronia tithonus)
• High Brown Fritillary (Fabriciana adippe)
• Hungarian Glider (Neptis rivularis)
• Iranian Argus (Kirinia climene)
• Large Ringlet (Erebia euryale)
• Large Tortoiseshell (Nymphalis polychloros)
• Large Wall Brown (Lasiommata maera)
• Lesser Marbled Fritillary (Brenthis ino)
• Lesser Purple Emperor (Apatura ilia)
• Lesser Spotted Frillitary (Melitaea trivia)
• Map (Araschnia levana)
• Marbled Fritillary (Brenthis daphne)
• Marbled Ringlet (Erebia montanus)
• Marbled White (Melanargia galathea)
• Marsh Fritillary (Euphydryas aurinia)
• Meadow Brown (Maniola jurtina)
• Meadow Ringlet (Erebia ligea)
• Nickerl's Fritillary (Melitaea aurelia)
• Niobe Fritillary (Fabriciana niobe)
• Oriental Meadow Brown (Hipparchia syriaca)
• Pales Fritillary (Boloria pales)
• Pallas' Fritillary (Argynnis laodice)
• Pallas' Sailer (Neptis sappho)
• Pearl-bordered Fritillary (Boloria euphrosyne)
• Pearly Heath (Coenonympha arcania)
• Phoebe Fritillary (Melitaea phoebe)
• Poplar Admiral (Limenitis populi)
• Queen of Spain Fritillary (Issoria lathonia)
• Ringlet (Aphantopus hyperantus)
• Rock Grayling (Hipparchia hermione)
• Lattice Brown (Kirinia roxelana)
• Russian Heath (Coenonympha leander)
• Scarce Fritillary (Euphydryas maturna)
• Scotch Argus (Erebia aethiops)
• Shepherd's Fritillary (Erebia pronoe)
• Silky Ringlet (Erebia gorge)
• Silver-washed Fritillary (Argynnis paphia)
• Small Heath (Coenonympha pamphilus)
• Small Pearl-Bordered Fritillary (Boloria selene)
• Southern Marbled Skipper (Hyponephele lupinus)
• Southern White Admiral (Limenitis reducta)
• Speckled Wood (Pararge aegeria)
• Spotted Fritillary (Melitaea didyma)
• Sudeten Ringlet (Erebia sudetica)
• Titania's Fritillary (Boloria titania)
• Tree Grayling (Hipparchia statilinus)
• Tullia's Ringlet (Coenonympha tullia)
• Twin-spot Fritillary (Brenthis hecate)
• Violet Frillitary (Boloria dia)
• Wall Brown (Lasiommata megera)
• White Admiral (Limenitis camilla)
• Woodland Brown (Lopinga achine)
• Woodland Grayling (Hipparchia fagi)
• Woodland Ringlet (Erebia medusa)
• Yellow-legged Tortoiseshell (Nymphalis xanthomelas)
• Yellow-spotted Ringlet (Erebia manto)

Gossamer-Winged (Lycaenidae)

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• Alcon Blue (Phengaris alcon)
• Amanda's Blue (Polyommatus amandus)
• Anomalous Blue (Polyommatus admetus)
• Bavius Blue (Pseudophilotes bavius)
• Black Hairstreak (Satyrium pruni)
• Blue Argus (Aricia anteros)
• Blue-spot Hairstreak (Satyrium spini)
• Brown Argus (Aricia agestis)
• Brown Hairstreak (Thecla betulae)
• Chalkhill Blue (Lysandra coridon)
• Chapman's Blue (Polyommatus thersites)
• Damon Blue (Polyommatus damon)
• Dorylas Blue (Polyommatus dorylas)
• Dusky Large Blue (Phengaris nausithous)
• Eastern Baton Blue (Pseudophilotes vicrama)
• Eastern Short-tailed Blue (Cupido decolorata)
• Geranium Argus (Eumedonia eumedon)
• Green-underside Blue (Glaucopsyche alexis)
• Idas Blue (Plebejus idas)
• Ilex Hairstreak (Satyrium ilicis)
• Iolas Blue (Iolana iolas)
• Lang's Short-tailed Blue (Leptotes pirithous)
• Large Copper (Lycaena dispar)
• Lesser Fiery Copper (Lycaena thersamon)
• Long-tailed Blue (Lampides boeticus)
• Meleager's Blue (Polyommatus daphnis)
• Northern Brown Argus (Aricia artaxerxes)
• Orion Blue (Scolitantides orion)
• Osiris Blue (Cupido osiris)
• Provençal Short-tailed Blue (Cupido alcetas)
• Purple-edged Copper (Lycaena hippothoe)
• Purple-shot Copper (Lycaena alciphron)
• Reverdin's Blue (Plebejus argyrognomon)
• Scarce Copper (Lycaena virgaureae)
• Scarce Large Blue (Phengaris teleius)
• Short-tailed Blue (Cupido argiades)
• Silver-studded Blue (Plebejus argus)
• Sloe Hairstreak (Satyrium acaciae)
• Sooty Copper (Lycaena tityrus)
• Violet Copper (Lycaena helle)
• White-letter Hairstreak (Satyrium w-album)
• Tomares nogelii
• Kretania sephirus

Whites and Sulphurs (Pieridae)

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• Berger's Clouded Yellow (Colias alfacariensis)
• Black-veined White (Aporia crataegi)
• Danube Clouded Yellow (Colias myrmidone)
• Dark-veined White (Pieris bryoniae)
• Eastern Bath White (Pontia edusa)
• Eastern Dappled White (Euchloe ausonia)
• Eastern Pale Clouded Yellow (Colias erate)
• Fenton's Wood White (Leptidea morsei)
• Lesser Clouded Yellow (Colias chrysotheme)
• Pale Clouded Yellow (Colias hyale)
• Persian White (Pieris ergane)
• Réal's Wood White (Leptidea reali)
• Southern Small White (Pieris mannii)
• Wood White (Leptidea sinapis)
• Pieris balcana

Metalmark (Riodinidae)

• Duke of Burgundy (Hamearis lucina)

Swallowtail (Papilionidae)

• Clouded Apollo (Parnassius mnemosyne)
• Eastern Festoon (Zerynthia cerisy)
• Southern Festoon (Zerynthia polyxena)

Skipper (Hesperiidae)

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• Chequered Skipper (Carterocephalus palaemon)
• Dingy Skipper (Erynnis tages)
• Dusky Grizzled Skipper (Pyrgus cacaliae)
• European Skipper (Thymelicus lineola)
• Hungaria Skipper (Spialia orbifer)
• Large Chequered Skipper (Heteropterus morpheus)
• Large Grizzled Skipper (Pyrgus alveus)
• Large Skipper (Ochlodes sylvanus)
• Lulworth Skipper (Thymelicus acteon)
• Marbled Skipper (Carcharodus lavatherae)
• Oberthür's Grizzled Skipper (Pyrgus armoricanus)
• Olive Skipper (Pyrgus serratulae)
• Oriental Skipper (Carcharodus orientalis)
• Safflower Skipper (Pyrgus carthami)
• Silver-spotted Skipper (Hesperia comma)
• Small Skipper (Thymelicus sylvestris)
• Spinose Skipper (Muschampia cribrellum)
• Tessellated Skipper (Muschampia tessellum)
• Tufted Skipper (Carcharodus floccifera)
• Yellow-banded Skipper (Pyrgus sidae)

How to identify butterflies in Romania

Romania's list overlaps heavily with central Europe, so the same rules apply. A yellow butterfly with black bands and blue-and-red hindwing spots is a Swallowtail; paler, with long tails and zebra stripes, it is a Scarce Swallowtail. A white butterfly with red spots gliding over mountain rock is an Apollo, while the Clouded Apollo has black spots only and lives in woodland. A large purple-flashing butterfly in a river forest is one of three emperors; Freyer's Purple Emperor is confined to the Danube.

The hard groups are the sulphurs, the blues and the fritillaries. The Danube Clouded Yellow is deeper orange than the Clouded Yellow with a narrower black border and no pale spots in it, and the females are very hard to separate from those of the Eastern Pale Clouded Yellow. Among the blues, the Adonis Blue male is electric blue with checkered fringes and the Chalkhill silvery, but the argus and anomalous blues need the underside pattern. For the fritillaries, photograph the hindwing underside: silver spots mean a large Argynnis or Boloria species, cream bands and rows of dots a Melitaea.

Frequently asked questions about Romanian butterflies

How many species of butterfly are there in Romania?

More than 200 butterfly species have been recorded in Romania, one of the highest national totals in Europe. The number reflects the range of habitats: alpine meadows and old-growth forest in the Carpathians, traditional hay meadows in Transylvania, dry steppe in Dobrogea, the Black Sea coast and the willow forests and reed beds of the Danube Delta.

Why does Romania have so many butterflies?

Romania combines central European, Mediterranean, steppe and alpine faunas in one country, and much of its farmland is still managed by hand: hay meadows cut once a year without fertiliser, wood pasture and lightly grazed hills. Those habitats have disappeared from most of western Europe, so species that are extinct or rare elsewhere, such as the Large Copper and Danube Clouded Yellow, still thrive here.

What is the most common family of butterflies in Romania?

The brush-footed butterflies (Nymphalidae) are the largest family in Romania, with nearly half of all species, including some 25 fritillaries, a dozen mountain ringlets, the graylings and browns, the emperors and gliders of the river forests and the garden tortoiseshells, Peacock and Red Admiral. The blues, coppers and hairstreaks are the second-largest family with more than 50 species.

Are there rare or protected butterflies in Romania?

Yes. About a dozen Romanian butterflies are protected under the EU Habitats Directive, including the Large Copper, Scarce Fritillary, Marsh Fritillary, Apollo, Clouded Apollo, Freyer's Purple Emperor and the four Large Blues. The Danube Clouded Yellow is critically endangered in the EU and has its last strongholds in Transylvania, and Nogel's Hairstreak of Dobrogea is one of Europe's rarest butterflies.

How do you identify a Mourning Cloak in Romania?

The Mourning Cloak, known in Britain as the Camberwell Beauty, is a large butterfly with dark maroon wings edged by a cream-yellow border and a row of blue spots inside it. In Romania it is widespread along willow-lined rivers and forest edges from the lowlands to the Carpathians. It hibernates as an adult and is one of the first butterflies flying in March.

Which fritillaries live in Romania?

Romania has around 25 fritillaries. The large ones include the Silver-washed, Dark Green, High Brown, Niobe, Cardinal and Queen of Spain Fritillaries; the smaller Boloria species include the Pearl-bordered, Small Pearl-bordered, Cranberry and Titania's Fritillaries of the mountains; and the Melitaea group includes the Heath, Glanville, Spotted, Marsh, Scarce and Nickerl's Fritillaries of the meadows.

Where are the best places to see butterflies in Romania?

The hay meadows of the Saxon villages in Transylvania, around Sighișoara, Viscri and Saschiz, are the richest lowland butterfly grasslands in Europe and can produce 80 species in a day in June and July. For mountain species go to Retezat, Bucegi or Piatra Craiului in July and August, for steppe butterflies to the Măcin Mountains of Dobrogea in spring, and for river species to the Danube Delta.

Is the Large Copper found in Romania?

Yes. The Large Copper (Lycaena dispar) is widespread in Romania's wet meadows, ditches and river margins, from Transylvania to the Danube Delta, where its caterpillars feed on great water dock and other docks. The species is protected under the EU Habitats Directive because it has been lost from much of western Europe through drainage, but Romanian populations remain strong.

When is the best time to see butterflies in Romania?

June and July are the best months for the lowlands and Transylvania, when the hay meadows are in full flower and fritillaries, blues, coppers, skippers and the Danube Clouded Yellow fly together. The high Carpathians peak from mid-July to mid-August, Dobrogea is best in April and May before the steppe dries, and migrants pass along the coast in September.

Does Romania have a national butterfly?

Romania has no officially designated national butterfly. The Danube Clouded Yellow is the species most often used to represent the country's butterfly fauna, because Transylvania holds most of its remaining European population, and the Apollo and the Large Copper are other widely recognised symbols of the Carpathian mountains and the wet meadows respectively.

Published November 22, 2023 · Last updated September 21, 2026