Kinds of Butterflies

There are two groups of butterflies: the true butterflies and the skipper butterflies. The skippers combine moth and butterfly characteristics, but are closer to the true butterfly than to the moth. True butterflies are classified in many families; skippers, in two. True butterflies have relatively slender bodies, large wings, and clubbed antennae, and they do not spin cocoons.

A brief description of the principal butterfly families of the United States and Canada follows.

are brightly colored butterflies that prefer open, sunny places. The wings, ranging in span from 1/2 to 1 3/4 inches (13 to 44 mm), are colored metallic blue, green, or copper with lighter undersides covered with a pattern of spots or lines. The antennae are ringed with white, and white scales surround the eyes. Many of these butterflies keep their hind wings in motion even while at rest.

The caterpillars look something like slugs. Most gossamer wing caterpillars feed on vegetable matter and some species are pests. At least one species eats aphids. Several species feed on ant larvae; the caterpillars are carried by adult ants to their nests where the ants feed on a sweet secretion given off by the caterpillars while the caterpillars feed on the larvae.

Blues, coppers, and hairstreaks make up a group of related butterflies that live all over the world. Most of these butterflies are rather small.

Most blues have bluish color somewhere on their wings. Coppers have copper color, which is reddish-brown, like a penny. Hairstreaks have “tails,” called hairstreaks, on the lower end of their back wings.

The American copper is a common butterfly of North America. Another North American butterfly is the great purple hairstreak. The upper sides of its wings are blue or purplish-blue. Each of its lower pair of wings ends in two hairstreaks; often, one is long and one short.

Family: Lycaenidae. Examples:

(Lycaena phlaeas). Red fore wings spotted with black, black hind wings with red border. Found from Hudson Bay to Georgia.

(Lycaena thoe). Males purplish orange with dark spots above; females, orange with dark markings above. Undersides of hind wings silvery gray with dark spots; of fore wings, orange with dark spots. Both sides of the hind wings have broad orange band. Found throughout northern and central United States.

(Atlides halesus). Top iridescent blue, underside dark brown with red spots. Two taillike projections on hind wings page B-538). Found throughout United States as far north as Illinois.

The Heliconians are chiefly tropical with brilliant colors and designs.

Family: Heliconiidae. Example:

(Heliconius charitonius). Tropical butterfly found mainly in Florida. Wings, much longer than they are wide, brownish-black crossed by yellow stripes.

typically have metallic-looking marks on the wings and range in color from dull reddish-brown to dark brown. The metalmarks are chiefly tropical, but some species, including the little metalmark and the northern metalmark, live in North America.

Family: Riodininae. The little metalmark is Lephelisca virgirienis; the northern, L. borealis.