Butterflies of North America

Northern Prairie Wildlife Research Center

Introduction: A description of this resource and the information it contains
Photo Thumbnails: Identify a butterfly by navigating through thumbnails of all of our photos
Checklists: Checklists of all species reported in a particular county (U.S.) or state (northern Mexico)
Distribution Maps
North America (Combined Maps): Photos, species accounts, and combined maps for butterflies occurring in the conterminous U.S. and northern Mexico
Great Plains: Colorado -- Iowa -- Kansas -- Minnesota -- Missouri -- Montana -- North Dakota -- Nebraska -- Oklahoma -- New Mexico -- South Dakota -- Texas -- Wyoming
East of Great Plains: Alabama -- Arkansas -- Connecticut -- Delaware -- Florida -- Georgia -- Illinois -- Indiana -- Kentucky -- Louisiana -- Maine -- Maryland -- Massachusetts -- Michigan -- Mississippi -- New Hampshire -- New Jersey-- New York -- North Carolina -- Ohio -- Pennsylvania -- Rhode Island -- South Carolina -- Tennessee -- Vermont -- Virginia -- Wisconsin -- West Virginia
West of Great Plains: Alaska -- Arizona -- California -- Hawaii -- Idaho -- Nevada -- Oregon -- Utah -- Washington
Northern Mexico
Other Butterfly Information
Atlas of North Dakota Butterflies: A stand-alone resource dedicated to the butterflies of North Dakota
The International Lepidoptera Survey: The Taxonomic Report: A non-profit organization devoted to the discovery, determination, and documentation, of new butterflies and moths around the world.
Other Links: Links to other moth and butterfly resources on the Internet
Moths and Butterflies of the Montane Cordillera Ecozone
Submitting New County Records: See our FAQ entitled How Can I Report a New County Record for a Moth or Butterfly?
Identifying a Specimen: See our FAQ entitled Identification of Moths and Butterflies
Common Butterfly and Moth Questions: A list of frequently asked questions concerning butterflies and moths
State Coordinators: Who to contact to verify new county records in your state
Acknowledgments: Individuals and organizations who have contributed photos for this project and helped compile distribution records
References: Publications used to compile distribution records and aid in the construction of this resource, as well as those with general information about moths and butterflies

This resource is based on the following sources:

Opler, Paul A.  1995.  Lepidoptera of North America: 2. Distribution of the 
     butterflies (Papilionoidea and Hesperioides) of the eastern United States.  
     Contributions of the C.P. Gillette Museum of Insect Biodiversity.  
     Colorado State University, Fort Collins, Colo.  Unpaginated.

Pavulaan, Harry and Paul A. Opler.  1995.  Atlas of eastern butterflies.    
     Unpublished information.

Stanford, Ray E. and Paul A. Opler.  1993.  Atlas of western USA butterflies, 
     including adjacent parts of Canada and Mexico.  Published by authors. 
     Denver, Colorado.  275pp.

This resource should be cited as:

Opler, Paul A., Harry Pavulaan, and Ray E. Stanford (coordinators).  
     1995.  Butterflies of North America.  Jamestown, ND: Northern 
     Prairie Wildlife Research Center Home Page.
     http://www.npwrc.usgs.gov/resource/distr/lepid/bflyusa/bflyusa.htm 
     (Version 12DEC2003).

Disclaimer: Maps shown on this Web site were created initially by manually coding maps in the original publications and creating new maps from those data. The new maps were checked for errors, but there is a possibility that some errors remain. Current maps may also reflect new county records that have been established since the date of publication. Users of this Web site need to understand that data are more complete for some species and counties than others. Absence of a county record for a particular species may mean that 1) the species does not occur there, 2) the species is present but has not been detected and reported yet, or 3) a county record exists but has not yet been added to our database.

For further information, contact:

     Dr. Paul A. Opler
     P.O. Box 2227
     Loveland, CO 80539
     (Contact for ordering eastern USA atlas)

     Dr. Ray E. Stanford
     720 Fairfax Street
     Denver, CO 80220
     (Contact for ordering western USA atlas)

     Harry Pavulaan
     494 Fillmore Street
     Herndon, VA 20170

Northern Prairie Wildlife Research Center