How to Identify Butterflies in Your Garden

Need help identifying butterflies? These quick tips show how to recognize the differences between various groups of butterflies. Once you know who they are, you can provide the plants they need to survive.

If you are interested in providing habitat that benefits butterflies, have a look at these host plants you can grow in your yard.

This excerpt from Bird Watcher’s Digest Butterflies Backyard Guide by Erin Gettler is provided with permission from Quarto Publishing Group USA Inc. who also provided a review copy of this book. Images from Shutterstock.

Quick Tips for Identifying Butterflies

Many butterflies need specific plants to survive, others are generalists. But either way, they need particular plants to survive.

Once you know the butterfly species that live in your area, you can learn which plants to grow to provide essential food and habitat including host plants for the caterpillar larvae.

Identifying butterflies can be tricky. There are numerous look-alikes, that are commonly mistaken for one-another. And, it is not always easy to tell if we’re looking at a moth or a butterfly.

Let’s get that sorted out first.

Besides the fact that butterflies are mainly diurnal (active during the day) and moths are often noctural (active at night), the top tip is to look at the antennae.

Moths have feathered or saw-edged feelers or antennae.

On butterflies, they are more slender and smooth with bulbs or clubs on the tips. There may be exceptions to this but I am not aware of them.

So, you know you have a butterfly.

Now what?

There are 15 basic groups listed below, and, it’s helpful to get familiar with them.

There are common traits for each group and, if you can recognize them, it becomes much easier to then drill down and determine the species. Like just about anything in life, it’s all about developing an eye for the nuances.

This excerpt is from  Butterflies Backyard Guide which I used to learn the groups and look up profiles of butterfly species.

Sometimes the plants they frequent also help with identification. We know, for instance, that monarch larvae can only feed on milkweed plants, so that’s always a big clue.

Butterfly Groups: How Many Do You Recognize?

There are more butterfly groups and butterflies than I have listed here but this provides a good overview of some you may be familiar with depending on your location.

Some of the groups not listed are buckeyes, snouts (great name!), and crescents.

1Swallowtails

Swallowtails have wide, pointed wings and trailing tails.

Species

• Black swallowtail
• Eastern tiger swallowtail
• Giant swallowtail
• Pipevine swallowtail
• Spicebush swallowtail
• Western tiger swallowtail
• Zebra swallowtail

2Oranges and Sulphurs

Oranges are small and orange or yellow.

Sulphurs are about 2 to 3 inches across and bright yellow, often with pink edging.

Species

• Clouded sulphur
• Sleepy orange
• Southern dogface

3Whites

Whites are small and white, sometimes with black or gray veins.

Species

• Cabbage white
• Checkered white

4Harvesters

Species

• Harvester

5Coppers and Hairstreaks

Coppers and hairstreaks are tiny and are usually gray with black spots on the underside of their wings.

Coppers have a bright, metallic sheen to their upper wings.

Hairstreaks usually, but not always, have threadlike tails.

Species

6Blues

Blues also have gray underwings with black spots, but males’ wings are usually brilliant metallic blue on top.

Species

• Easter tailed-blue
• Spring azure
• Western tailed-blue

7Monarchs and Other Milkweed Butterflies

Monarchs and other milkweed butterflies are large, with brown or orange wings. This shows you how to collect and grow milkweed seeds.

Species

• Monarch
• Dark blue tiger
• Striped blue crow
• Common tiger

8Fritillaries

Fritillaries are brown and orange with black or dark brown dots, dashes, squiggles, and marbling. Greater fritillaries have white or “silver” spots on their underwings.

Species

• Aphrodite fritillary
• Great spangled fritillary
• Meadow fritillary
• Variegated fritillary

9Admirals

Many admirals are mimics of species with toxic defenses, but the shapes of their wings usually differ from the butterflies they imitate.

Species

• Viceroy
• Red-spotted admiral
• White admiral

10Emperors

Emperors have a triangular shape, with long, pointed forewings.

Species

• Hackberry emperor
• Tawny emperor

11Ladies

Ladies have a cobwebbed, camouflage pattern on their underwings and a distinctive close-winged profile with squared-off forewing tips.

Species

• American lady
• Painted lady
• Red admiral

12Tortoiseshells and Commas

Tortoiseshells and commas have characteristic jagged edges, squared-off or recurved forewing tips, and small, tail-like points on their hindwings. Their wings are typically bright orange on top, but camouflaged below.

Species

• Easter comma
• Milbert’s tortoiseshell
• Mourning cloak
• Question mark

13Satyrs

Satyrs are brown and have eyespots.

Species

• Common ringlet
• Common wood-nymph
• Little wood satyr

14Spread-Wing Skippers

Spread-wing skippers have fat bodies and look more like day-flying moths than skippers.

Species

• Common checkered-skipper
• Juvenal’s duskywings
• Horace’s duskywings
• Silver-spotted skipper

15Grass Skippers

Grass skippers perch with their forewings held erect at a forty-five-degree angle, and their hindwings held horizontally, giving them a fighter-jet profile.

They’re usually tiny and are often colored orange or brown.

Once you recognize which group the butterfly belongs to, note finer details such as color and placement of field marks (eyespots, white bands, and iridescence) to help you identify what you’ve seen.

Species

• Delaware skipper
• Dun skipper
• Hobomok skipper
• Least skipper
• Peck’s skipper
• Tawny-edged skipper
• Zabulon skipper

And that’s it! There’s lots of groups but, it really does help to identify them this way so you can then narrow it down to the right species. Butterflies are most active on sunny afternoons, so have a camera handy and see what you can find.

Related: Should I use Bacillus thuringiensis (Bt) for problem caterpillars?

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~Melissa the Empress of Dirt ♛