Ever since childhood I’ve been captivated by butterflies. They are probably the most widely charismatic of insects. I’m used to slamming on the brakes in France to chase and identify more exotic species that don’t occur in Britain. This page is my personal photographic record of those we’ve seen.
We begin with our home territory of Europe but below those I’ve added the handful of species that we’ve bumped into in further flung parts of the world. Since this page is a getting a little long, here’re links to the sections.
Europe
Papilionidae | ||
Swallowtail | Scarce Swallowtail | |
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Southern Scarce Swallowtail | Spanish Festoon | Clouded Apollo |
Pieridae | ||
Large White | Small White | Dark-veined White |
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Green-veined White | Wood White | Black-veined White | Bath White |
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Orange Tip | Provence Orange Tip | ||
Clouded Yellow | Brimstone | Cleopatra |
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Lycaenidae | ||
Ilex Hairstreak | False Ilex Hairstreak | Green Hairstreak |
Small Copper | Madeiran Small Copper | Large Copper | |
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Purple Shot Copper | Purple-edged Copper | Long-tailed Blue | |
Geranium Bronze | Lang’s Short-tailed Blue | ||
Little Tiger Blue | Short-tailed Blue | Small Blue | |
Osiris Blue | Green-underside Blue | |
Panoptes Blue | Silver-studded Blue | Meleager’s Blue |
Common Blue | Brown Argus | |
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Adonis Blue | Holly Blue | Escher’s Blue |
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Riodinidae |
Duke of Burgundy |
Danaedae | |
Monarch | Plain Tiger |
Nymphalidae | |
Purple Emperor | |
Comma | Southern Comma | |
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Map Butterfly | |
White Admiral | Southern White Admiral | Small Tortoiseshell | |
Red Admiral | Macaronesian Red Admiral | |
Painted Lady | Peacock |
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Silver-washed Fritillary | Queen of Spain Fritillary | |
Titania’s Fritillary | Knapweed Fritillary | |
Spotted Fritillary | Provencal Fritillary | |
Satyridae | ||
Marbled White | Western Marbled White | |
Great Banded Grayling | Woodland Grayling | Striped Grayling |
Ringlet | Piedmont Ringlet | Dewy Ringlet |
Scotch Argus | Meadow Brown | Small Heath |
Gatekeeper | Spanish Gatekeeper | Pearly Heath |
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Chestnut Heath | Dusky Heath |
Speckled Wood | Wall Brown | |
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Hesperidae | ||
Grizzled Skipper | Dingy Skipper | Mallow Skipper |
Large Chequered Skipper | Small Skipper | Essex Skipper | Large Skipper |
SE Asia
Besta Palm Dart | Banded Demon |
Dark Brand Bush Brown | Common Palmfly | Common Lascar |
Common Tiger | Black-veined Tiger | Common Rose |
The Antipodes
Yellow Admiral | New Zealand Red Admiral | Rauparaha’s Copper | Common Grass Blue |
Africa
Citrus Swallowtail |
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