Want to know more about the world’s most beautiful butterflies? Here are 20 beautiful butterflies that you can see in the wild:
Table of Contents
Zebra Longwing Butterfly
This is a species that’s found across South and Central America all the way up to southern Texas and Florida in the United States.
As the name implies, the zebra longwing butterfly has a black color with zebra like stripes in a light yellow color. They have a wingspan between 7.2-10 cm and the underpart of the wings are much lighter in color than the upper part.
Zebra Longwing Butterflies have an unusual diet that consists of pollen, which make their bodies toxic to predators.
Photo: Shutterstock
Ulysses Butterfly
The Ulysses Butterfly is a quite large butterfly with a wingspan of 14 cm (5.5 in). The upper side of their wings have a beautiful blue color and the underside is black and brown.
These beautiful butterflies inhabits tropical rainforests in Australia, Papua New Guinea, and the Solomon Islands.
Photo: Shutterstock
Peaco*ck Pansy
The peaco*ck pansy is found in Cambodia and South Asia. The upper side of the wings have a orange-yellow color with brown edges, striking eyespots and costal bars. Adults have a wingspan of 5.4-6.2 cm (2.1-2.4 in).
hAn internering fact about the peaco*ck pansy is that the underside of the wings change with season. During dry season it’s mainly brown, but during wet season they get additional eyespots and lines.
Photo: Shutterstock
Emerald Swallowtail
This is no doubt one of the world’s most beautiful butterflies. Native to Asia, the emerald swallowtail has a wingspan of 8-10 cm (3.1-3.9 in) with a dark green to black color with emerald green metallic bands.
The underside of the emerald swallowtail butterfly is black with orange, white, and blue spots along the edges of the hindwings.
This species can be seen in Burma, Borneo, Sumatra, Indonesia (Island of Nias and Simeulue), the Philippines (Palawan, Balabac, Basilan, Cuyo, Busuanga and Dumaran).
Photo: Shutterstock
Blue Clipper Butterfly
The Blue Clipper Butterfly is most commonly seen in forested areas of South and Southeast Asia. It’s found in both Bangladesh, Western Ghats, Assam, Cambodia, Myanmar, and Sri Lanka.
It’s a fast-flying butterfly with beautiful blue-colored wings.
Photo: Shutterstock
Eighty Eight Butterfly
The eighty eight butterfly is a species native to the wet tropical forests of Central and South America. It has gotten its name from the marks on the underside of the wings that outline the number ”88”.
The upper side is dark brown with a Metallic bluish-green band on the forewings.
Photo: Shutterstock
Monarch butterfly
The monarch butterfly is recognized by the upperside of its wings that have an orange color with black veins and white spots. The underside looks very similar, but it’s more brown in color instead of orange.
The wingspan ranges from 8.9-10.2 cm (3.5-4 in) and they can reach a flight speed of 9 km/h (5.5 mph).
In the Americas, the monarch butterfly is found from southern Canada all the way down to northern South America. It’s also found in Bermuda, Cook Islands, Hawaii, Cuba, the Solomon Islands, New Caledonia, Papua New Guinea, New Zealand, Australia, the Azores and Madeira in Portugal, Canary Islands in Spain, Gibraltar, the Philippines, and North Africa.
Dead Leaf Butterfly
The dead leaf butterfly is probably one of the world’s most interesting butterflies. It’s found in tropical climates in Asia from India to Japan.
What makes this butterfly so interesting is that it looks like a dry leaf when the wings are closed, which they use as a camouflage. The upperside of the wings looks completely different with both black, blue and bright yellow colors.
The most common countries to spot these beautiful butterflies is in India, Nepal, Bangladesh, Myanmar, Bhutan, southern China, Thailand, Laos, Taiwan and Vietnam.
Photo: Shutterstock
Forest Giant Owl Butterfly
The owl butterfly is known for its big eyespots on the wings, which looks like owls’ eyes. They are quite big butterflies and can grow up to 20 cm in wingspan.
They are found in rainforest and secondary forests in Mexico, Central America and South America.
Photo: Shutterstock
Blue Morpho
The blue morpho is known all over the world to be one of the world’s most beautiful butterflies, and that’s because of its bright blue color on the upperside of its wings. The underside of the blue morpho’s wings looks different with a brown color and eyespots.
This species is most commonly found in Central and South America, as well in Mexico.
Photo: Shutterstock
Goliath Birdwing Butterfly
One of the world’s most beautiful butterflies is the Goliath birdwing butterfly. It’s found in New Guinea and is the second largest butterfly in the world with a wingspan of up to 28 cm (11 in).
The males and females looks different from each other. The males have wings of black, green and yellow color, while the females have a dark brown color with yellow marks on their hindwings.
Photo: Shutterstock
Glasswinged Butterfly
This butterfly is known for its unique transparent wings that helps them to camouflage in nature. It’s most commonly found in tropical rainforests of Central and northern South America.
The wings might look very delicate, but it can actually carry up to 40 times its own weight. So it’s much stronger than it seems to be.
Photo: Shutterstock
Adonis Blue
The Adonis blue is found in the Palearctic ecozone, which includes Western Europe, Central Europe, South Europe, South Russia, Iraq, Iran, Caucasus, Transcaucasus, and Turkey. It’s most commonly found in chalk downland in warm sheltered spots.
The male and female adonis blue butterfly looks different from each other. The females have a beautiful chocolate brown color, while the males have a beautiful bright blue color. The underside of both males and females are brownish grey in color with black and orange spots.
Adonis blue is a small butterfly and has a wingspan of about 3 cm (1.2 in).
Photo: Shutterstock
Question Mark Butterfly
These butterflies are found in both city parks and wooded areas of North America. They like to stay in areas with trees and open space.
The underside of it’s wings looks like a dry leaf, which provides camouflage for potential predators. The upperside of the wings have a beautiful orange-red color with black spots.
Photo: Shutterstock
Sunset Moth
This moth is considered to be a butterfly and is endemic to Madagascar. It’s found in most parts of the island, and the best time to spot them is between March and August.
They have a wingspan of 7-9 cm (2.8-3.5 in), but can sometimes grow up to 11 cm (4.3 in). It looks much like the swallowtail butterflies, especially in its tail and colorful wings. That’s why it’s often believed to be a butterfly.
Sunset moths have a beautiful black color with red, blue, and green markings.
Photo: Shutterstock
Which is your favorite among these beautiful butterflies? Leave a comment below!
