It is difficult to describe exactly this type of butterfly as there are many hybrids in this species. Male tiger swallowtails have black and yellow wings while females also have blue markings on the hind wings. Another of the beautiful species of butterfly from the family Papilionidae is the tiger swallowtail Papilio glaucus.
In the summer and fall, you can often find tiger swallowtails on asters and sweet peas. One way to tell the difference between male and female tiger swallowtails is their distinctive wing markings. The female species has blue markings on the lower part to the hind wings whereas the males have a black band on their wing edges.
The beautiful Pipevine butterfly has black and blue wings with orange spots under its wings. One of the most striking butterflies you will come across is the beautiful pipevine butterfly Battus philenor. This swallowtail has black wings with iridescent blue markings on its hind wings. You will also notice interesting orange spots with black outlines between the veins underside the wings.
Pipevine swallowtails are generally found in forest biomes in North and Central America. Like many butterflies in the Papilionidae family, pipevines are quite large.
Their black and blue wings have a wingspan of between 2. The Orange Sulphur butterfly has orange and brown wings left and yellow colored wings on the underside right. From the family Pieridae , the orange sulphur butterfly is found in North America, Canada, and Mexico. This species of butterfly from the genus Colias is closely related to clouded yellows and other clouded sulphur butterflies. The orange sulphur butterfly can be identified by its orange rounded wings and brown edging along the edges of the forewings and hind wings.
You will also notice a single black or brown dot on each of the forewings and an orange dot on the hind wings. In some cultures, if you have an orange butterfly fluttering around you it can symbolize joy, passion, or a reminder to be positive.
The zebra longwing butterfly has black and white striped wings with white dots. The common name of the Heliconius charithonia is zebra longwing butterfly due to its black and white striped wing patterns. These beautiful butterflies from the family Nymphalidae are generally found in Texas, Florida and South and Central America.
The zebra longwings have a wingspan of 2. The wings are black with a white band running laterally and a few diagonal ones on the wings. Looking up close at pictures of the butterflies, you will notice that some of the stripes can be yellow. There is also a row of white dots on the base of the black hind wings. The Northern pearly-eye is a small-medium sized butterfly with wingspan of 1.
Northern pearly-eye butterflies Enodia anthedon are pretty butterflies that inhabit the forests of North America. The identifying feature of this small butterfly species is the eye-like markings on the light brown ventral underside wings. The dorsal upperside wings are a brown-gray color with a row of black dots along the edges. Despite its pretty appearance, northern pearly-eyes like to feed on dung, fungi, and roadkill.
In forests, you will often find them on birch, poplar, and willow trees. The California sister butterfly has black wings with white bands and orange markings. Another of the types of black butterflies is the California sister butterfly Adelpha californica.
As its name suggests, this elegant butterfly species is found in California and the western coast of the U. To identify the California sister butterfly, look for its orange patches on the tips of the forewings. There is also a white diagonal band on the wings. These markings are repeated on the underside of the wings. You will also notice that the dorsal wings may have orange, white, blue, and brown coloring.
This small butterfly species is often seen darting through woodlands. The dorsal wings are more striking due to the contrast of dusty-orange on black. The ventral wings are a duller, more brown-like color. One of the most beautiful butterflies is the buckeye butterfly with its colorful eye-like markings.
One of the most delightful butterflies in North America is the buckeye butterfly Junonia coenia. The brown wings have large eye-like markings on them which help ward off predators. Other identification marks on its wings are patches of orange, white, and hints of blue colors. On warm summer days, you will often see buckeyes on snapdragons, plantains, and other brightly-colored flowers.
Interestingly, the buckeye butterflies prefer to feed on nectar from yellow flowers. The question mark butterfly gets its name due to the white mark on the underside of the hind wing. The question mark butterfly Polygonia interrogationis is often found fluttering in open spaces and in wooded areas. They have an interesting wing shape with pointed tips and an uneven edge. They look like they are having a great time frolicking!
We live in Southern NJ. I was in Goathland N Yorkshire today sitting in the garden of a tea room. When three or four gorgeous butterflies fluttered round causing quite a stir. I think they were red admiral. July 7, A Red Admiral flew into my garage and I got great pictures. Never Sean in Michigan before. Me too!! I have three on my porch looking right at me right as I type this!
I went to go out the door and one flew right up to me trying to follow me back in the house! Whats odd is my late grandfather raised me and my brothers i was told our loved ones show up as butterflies. They are exactly the color of the harley emblem. A real coincidence? I have red admiral butterflies visit me each evening since my husband died on23 Apr His high school colors were orange and black, just like the butterflies. They frequently land on me and do touch and go landings on me which I believe are kisses.
They visit throughout butterfly season. I live in Seaford, Va. I have seen several orange and black butterflies in our yard. We live in central New Mexico. Not sure what they are. Saw several maybe less than 50 today in Martha, Oklahoma SW part of the state.
Saw hundreds of Monarchs in the same area last fall. Have spotted several hundred Red Admiral butterflies amongst pachasandra blossoms in the yard of our condominium both yesterday and today in Evanston, Il. I was able to identify them with the pictures you posted under How to tell apart four orange and black butterflies.
An orange and black butterfly flits by. Read about the monarch's life cycle Viceroy Limenitis archippus The viceroy looks closest to the monarch butterfly because it is a mimic of the monarch. Five plants to start your pollinator garden Painted lady Vanessa cardui Although also orange and black, the painted lady has quite a different pattern from a monarch butterfly. The red admiral is a breeding resident of Iowa, and its larvae eats nettles.
You can also see in the graphics the differences in patterns. Early spring butterflies Almost 70 species of butterflies have been seen in Dickinson County, Iowa, and the time of year can be told from which ones are most active. The mourning Read More » Read More. Five fun facts about painted lady butterflies 1. It is sometimes Read More » Read More. Six facts about viceroy butterflies You see a black-and-orange butterfly flitting around, but it looks too small to be a monarch butterfly.
Viceroy butterflies mimic monarch butterflies, and it was long thought that was because Read More » Read More. Notice how the wings are identical but opposite; they are an Read More » Read More. Plus, you can glue them to a magnet Read More » Read More. Toilet paper tube butterfly ornaments My fingers are stained orange like I just ate a bag of Cheetos. All Read More » Read More.
Usually only found in the South, this butterfly may be expected farther north as climate change alters the distribution of some species. This is a large, showy, and fast-flying butterfly that likes open fields and bright sunshine. They are legendarily difficult to catch.
Note the "dog face" profile in black on each upper wing that gives this butterfly its cool common name. I remember a field in Texas swarming with these butterflies; their speed and agility is impressive.
This beautiful butterfly is essentially tropical, with a range that extends into South America. In the US, it can be found in Florida and the southern states into Texas; there are occasional migrations that bring these butterflies even farther north.
Adults roost together at night in groups of over 50 individuals, dispersing in the morning to nectar at a variety of plants and—unusual for butterflies—consume pollen from flowers. The caterpillars are white with black spines and feed on passionflower vines, whose toxic sap gives them chemical protection from predators.
This subtly beautiful butterfly is best identified by the area in which it is found: the woods. It is relatively unusual to find large butterflies flying in woods or forests, and if the insect is pale brown, has round "eye spots" bordering the wings, and tends to land vertically on tree trunks, then there is a good chance it is a pearly eye or one of its close relatives. These pretty butterflies do have a somewhat unattractive habit: They like to feed on roadkill.
I once found a big male happily feeding on a very dead possum on a lonely West Virginia forest road. Not the most appealing setting for such a pretty insect, but that's Nature for you. This is one of the most variable butterflies in the US. It occurs nearly everywhere in the US east of the Mississippi, but you could hold two specimens from different parts of its range in your hands and not think they were even related.
Eastern populations tend to have bright yellow bands behind big, round eye-spots on the upper wings, while western forms may have no yellow at all, very small eyespots, and be nearly twice as big. I chose an image of an individual that is more or less in the middle, but if you have a butterfly that looks even a little like this, it may well be a form of C.
A truly gorgeous butterfly, the California sister is big, fast, and hard to miss. It stops often to feed on roadkill or drink from puddles, flashing those big, beautiful markings when it does.
This insect is one of the northernmost members of a huge group of tropical and sub-tropical butterflies, many of which show interesting variations on the markings of the California sister.
Some feature beautiful iridescent purple wings. Milbert's Tortoiseshell Butterfly Aglais milberti. I almost didn't include the species, because it's not terribly common and is hard to identify on the wing—and with its constant patrolling behavior, it's almost always on the wing—but when a Milbert's tortoiseshell butterfly stops to drink from a puddle or a flower, it shows its wings, and for my money there's not a more beautiful butterfly in North America.
It's related to several European species that are also striking, including the amazing peacock butterfly. Milbert's tortoiseshells are on the wing all summer, but some hibernate, and may come out on a warm spring day, sometimes when there's still snow on the ground. The red admiral is yet another butterfly that some entomologists think is a mimic of the monarch, though the monarch is bigger, brighter, and has different flight habits.
Is it possible that we are witnessing a species in the process of changing to become a more accurate mimic? When you come down to it, there's no such thing as a species, in the sense of a fixed representative of an animal's permanent form; everything is in flux, shifting towards more and more successful variations on their form.
The red admiral, then, along with every other butterfly on this page, is simply the "current version. Isn't this a gorgeous insect?
It's a shame that it flies so fast, giving the average observer little chance to appreciate its beauty. The buckeye occurs throughout eastern North America, where its larvae feed on nettles. The butterfly likes to circle the same area and land in the same general spot, and you will most often see them on dusty gravel roads, where their brown ground color blends in surprisingly well. The big eyespots resemble a bird's or a lizard's, so when they snap their wings open, their predators may be scared off.
Buckeyes also have a curious relationship with the large Carolina grasshopper, which inhabits the same general space as the butterfly. When the grasshopper jumps, the buckeye will swoop down to "do battle" with the larger insect. Why they do this remains unknown.
Question Mark Butterfly Polygonia interrogationis. This is one of the angle-wing butterflies and is common in late summer. It has a bright-orange upperside, but the underside of the wings is camouflaged to blend in perfectly with bark or dead leaves. There is one silver mark among the camo on the underwing, shaped like a question mark, which gives the butterfly its name. This butterfly is very similar to the question mark — in fact, it's very nearly the same, except that instead of a question mark it has a silvery comma on its underside.
It's the smaller of the two "punctuation" butterflies, and is also somewhat more common. When this butterfly lands on dead leaves or in the middle of a gravel road, its camouflage make it almost impossible to find. The glittery comma marking only adds to the confusion, since it looks like a drop of water on a leaf. This insect is maybe the most "cosmopolitan" butterfly in North America, meaning it occurs pretty much everywhere in the world.
The monarch is famous for its travels between the US and Mexico, but the painted lady can be found just about anywhere in the world. There is even a closely related species in the Hawaiian Islands. The painted lady is related to the buckeye and the red admiral, and like those species, its caterpillar is spiny and will eat thistle and other common "weeds. This, by the way, is another butterfly that may mimic the monarch.
This beautiful butterfly is related to the angle wings, and has irregular wing borders just like those insects. The mourning cloak, however, has a unique and gorgeous appearance. The ground color is deep purple-brown; the borders are yellow, but just inside that is a band of black with royal-blue spots.
It's a subtle but sublime insect, and while it's common in North America, it's regarded as one of the rare prizes of collectors in the UK, where it has been known as The Camberwell Beauty.
The caterpillar feeds on elm and is very spiny; it features a row of red spots along its back. They are harmless. This generally common group of butterflies is in the family Lycaenidae. These insects are small and quick-flying, and their delicate, pretty markings require an up-close look or a good photograph to appreciate. This family is especially abundant in the American west, and some mountain meadows have swirling clouds of blues of various species.
The caterpillars are a little like fuzzy green slugs; they creep slowly around the flower-tops of their food plants, where they are very nearly invisible, even to the trained eye. Members of this very common group of butterflies are generally readily identifiable by their stout bodies, pointed wings, and quick, "skipping" flight.
Exceptions to this rule are the giant skippers and a few other large species, but for the most part, skippers tend to look alike. The species figured here, the fiery skipper, is representative of the typical skipper type. Its common name is appropriate because when the male butterfly flies in the sun, it's reflective-orange wings seem to glow.
The caterpillar feeds on a variety of grasses, including Bermuda grass, and when there are enough of them, they may be considered a pest species.
Another skipper habit is the way they often hold their wings in a "fighter jet" position when resting on a flower or leaf. This is a very reliable field characteristic.
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