QuickIDbutterfliesmoths

Quick ID: Butterflies and Moths

Looking for a butterfly or moth? Check the pictures below and click the link to find out more about the species.

Most of the pictures show the insect at rest. Some butterflies and moths rest with their wings folded, others with wings spread. This can help you identify your insect.

Some butterflies and moths are mimics. Mimics have colors or patterns that are very similar to other species which are poisonous to predators. The mimics therefore are protected even though they are not poisonous themselves. One poisonous butterfly is the Pipevine Swallowtail. How many mimics of the Pipevine Swallowtail can you see?

Luna Moth

Actias luna

Cabbage White

Pieris rapae

Clouded Sulphur

Colias philodice

European Gypsy Moth

Lymantria dispar

Pipevine Swallowtail No Link

Battus philenor

Eastern Black Swallowtail (male)

Papilio polyxenes

Eastern Black Swallowtail (female)

Papilio polyxenes

Red-spotted Purple No Link

Basilarchia astyanax

Eastern Tiger Swallowtail (female, dark phase)

Pterourus glaucus

Eastern Tiger Swallowtail (female, light phase)

Pterourus glaucus

Eastern Tiger Swallowtail (male)

Pterourus glaucus

Pearl Crescent No Link

Phyciodes tharos

Painted Lady

Vanessa cardui

Buckeye No Link

Junonia coenia

Appalachian Brown No Link

Satyrodes eurydice

Eight-spotted Forester No Link

Alypia octomaculata

Eastern Tailed Blue No Link

Everes comyntas

Great Spangled Fritillary No Link

Speyeria cybele

Monarch No Link

Danaus plexippus

Red Admiral No Link

Vanessa atalanta

Silver-spotted Skipper No Link

Epargyreus clarus

Question Mark No Link

Polygonia interrogationis

Hummingbird Moth

Hemaris thysbe

Eastern Tent Caterpillar Moth

Malacosoma americana

Mourning Cloak

Nymphalis antiopa

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Thumbnail Credits:

Eight-spotted Forester (Johnson County K-state Research and Extension Master Gardener, Jacolyn Loyd Goetz)

Eastern Tailed Blue (Will Cook)

Silver-spotted Skipper (Will Cook)

Monarch (Peter J. Bryant)

Great Spangled Fritillary (Department of Horticulture, University of Kentucky)

Pearl Crescent (Delores Cole, Kelleys Island Birds and Natural History)

Pipevine Swallowtail (Johnson County K-state Research and Extension Master Gardener, Jacolyn Loyd Goetz)

Red-spotted Purple (Tomm Lorenzin)

Red Admiral (Dave Smith)

Question Mark (COPYRIGHT Michael Allen McDowell)

Eyed Brown (photo is courtesy of Prof. Peter Weber and Rice Creek Field Station, SUNY Oswego)

Cabbage White (Edgar P. Spalding)

Clouded Sulphur (Ohio Lepidopterists)

European Gypsy Moth (Michael Borsch)

Eastern Black Swallowtail - male (Jim Brock)

Eastern Black Swallowtail - male (Randy Emmitt)

Eastern Tiger Swallowtail - male (Copyright Jay Cossey, http://www.images.on.ca/JayC/jc_g1index.htm )

Eastern Tiger Swallowtail - dark phase female (Johnson County K-state Research and Extension Master Gardener, Jacolyn Loyd Goetz)

Eastern Tiger Swallowtail - light phase female (Johnson County K-state Research and Extension Master Gardener, Jacolyn Loyd Goetz)

Hummingbird Moth (W. Tracy Parnell)