17 Types of Butterflies in Hawaii: Native Species and Island Visitors

Hawaii sits roughly 2,400 miles from the nearest continent, yet hundreds of butterfly records have piled up across the islands over the decades. Almost none of those species actually evolved there. The kamehameha is one of only two native butterfly species in Hawaii, the other being Udara blackburni.

This rundown of the types of butterflies in Hawaii pairs those two true island natives with fifteen species that arrived later and now share the same hibiscus hedges, roadside grass, and garden citrus trees. Each entry below covers wing pattern, host plant, and island range so beginners can tell look-alikes apart on sight. Readers curious about how many butterfly species exist worldwide will find Hawaii’s tally tiny by comparison, which is part of what makes its native pair so unusual. That short list sits alongside a much larger cast of different types of insects that reached the islands by wind, wave, or cargo hold.

Butterfly	Status in Hawaii	Family	Primary Host Plant
Kamehameha Butterfly	Native (endemic)	Nymphalidae	Māmaki (native nettle)
Blackburn’s Blue / Hawaiian Blue	Native (endemic)	Lycaenidae	Koa and related trees
Monarch	Introduced	Nymphalidae	Milkweed, crown flower
Cabbage White	Introduced	Pieridae	Cabbage family plants
Gulf Fritillary	Introduced	Nymphalidae	Passionflower
Fiery Skipper	Introduced	Hesperiidae	Lawn grasses
Asian Swallowtail / Xuthus Swallowtail	Introduced	Papilionidae	Citrus trees
Large Orange Sulphur	Introduced	Pieridae	Cassia and legume trees
Pea Blue	Introduced	Lycaenidae	Peas, beans, legume pods
Western Pygmy Blue	Introduced/self-established	Lycaenidae	Saltbush, pigweed
Gram Blue	Introduced	Lycaenidae	Gram, cowpea, legumes
American Lady	Introduced/stray	Nymphalidae	Everlasting plants
Painted Lady	Introduced/stray	Nymphalidae	Thistles
Red Admiral	Introduced/stray	Nymphalidae	Nettles
Sleepy Orange	Introduced	Pieridae	Senna shrubs
Long-tailed Blue	Introduced	Lycaenidae	Legume pods
Lesser Grass-Blue	Introduced	Lycaenidae	Clover and low legumes

1. Kamehameha Butterfly

The Kamehameha butterfly (Vanessa tameamea) carries the Hawaiian name pulelehua and belongs to the same brush-footed family as the painted lady and red admiral covered later on this list. According to the University of Hawaii’s Pulelehua Project, the butterfly is endemic to Hawaiʻi, meaning it is found nowhere else in the world, and it was officially adopted as the state insect in 2009 after a proposal from a group of elementary school students. Rusty orange patches break up the forewings, while the hindwings fade into a darker, mottled brown that helps the butterfly disappear against tree bark.

Caterpillars feed almost exclusively on māmaki and other native nettle relatives, so the species’ fortunes track the health of Hawaii’s wet forests. Although historically known from all the main Hawaiian Islands, the butterfly is no longer found in some areas where it used to be common, such as Tantalus on Oʻahu, and it appears to be declining. Hawaii designated pulelehua, also known as the kamehameha butterfly, as the official state insect in 2009. The Maui Invasive Species Committee notes that researchers now rely on citizen-submitted sightings to map where populations still hold on. Together with Hawaii’s native moths, the Kamehameha represents one of the only Lepidoptera lineages that made the ocean crossing on its own, without help from ships or planes.

Pro Tip: Look at the forewing spots first. The Kamehameha shows only a few bold white patches, while the introduced painted lady and American lady carry a busier scatter of small white dots across the same wing area.

2. Blackburn’s Blue / Hawaiian Blue

Hawaii’s second native butterfly is far smaller and far easier to miss. According to Wikipedia’s entry on the species, Udara blackburni is a butterfly in the family Lycaenidae that is endemic to Hawaiʻi, also known as Blackburn’s butterfly, Blackburn’s bluet, Hawaiian blue, or green Hawaiian blue. Its wingspan runs only 22 to 29 millimeters, barely wider than a quarter, so most people notice it only when it pauses long enough to flash color.

The wings are blue on the upper side and green on the underside, and the butterflies often perch with wings folded, revealing those green undersides. The University of Hawaiʻi Insect Museum describes mating pairs regularly photographed on Oʻahu, though the species turns up on every main island where koa forest survives. Writers at Halekulani Living describe it as a wee flutterer with an inch-wide wingspan, a comical face with bulging eyes, and black-and-white striped antennae, typically holding its wings upright to display pale aquamarine undersides. Hawaii’s native invertebrate lineup extends well past butterflies, and readers exploring the islands’ native spiders will notice the same pattern: isolated evolution producing small, understated species found nowhere else on Earth.

3. Monarch

PIN IT

The monarch (Danaus plexippus) is probably the most recognizable butterfly in Hawaii, even though it isn’t native to the islands at all. Early travelers brought monarchs along with the crown flower and other milkweed relatives the caterpillars need, and the population has thrived ever since. Because Hawaii’s climate never turns cold enough to trigger migration, local monarchs breed year-round instead of making the long seasonal flights seen among mainland populations that pass through places like Ohio every autumn.

Adults show the familiar burnt-orange wings laced with black veins and a bold black border dotted with white spots. Females lay single eggs on the undersides of milkweed leaves, and the black, yellow, and white striped caterpillars store plant toxins that make both caterpillar and adult unappealing to most birds. Monarchs show up in gardens, roadside lots, and anywhere crown flower or milkweed takes root across all the main islands.

4. Cabbage White

PIN IT

The cabbage white (Pieris rapae) is a small, chalky-white butterfly that arrived in Hawaii along with imported vegetable crops. Wingspans run from roughly 1.6 to 2.4 inches, and each forewing carries one or two faint black spots that separate this species from Hawaii’s other whites and sulphurs.

Caterpillars feed on cabbage, broccoli, and other mustard-family plants, which puts this butterfly on plenty of gardeners’ pest lists despite its delicate appearance. The species is now established throughout the islands and across the mainland, including gardens as far away as New York, making it one of the most widely distributed butterflies anywhere in the world.

5. Gulf Fritillary

The Gulf fritillary (Agraulis vanillae) stands out for its bright orange upper wings and the rows of iridescent silver spots splashed across the underside of each hindwing. It isn’t native to Hawaii, but it has settled in wherever passionflower vines, the caterpillars’ only food source, climb over fences and trellises.

Spiky orange caterpillars with black markings strip passionflower leaves quickly, though the vines usually bounce back. Gardeners who plant passionflower specifically to attract this species are common in Hawaii, much like growers in Texas who cultivate the same vines for the same reason.

Pro Tip: Flip over a Gulf fritillary at rest. The underside’s metallic silver spots are far more distinctive than the plain orange upper wing and make the species nearly impossible to confuse with anything else in Hawaii.

6. Fiery Skipper

The fiery skipper (Hylephila phyleus) looks more like a small moth than a classic butterfly at first glance, thanks to its stocky body and rapid, darting flight. Males show bright orange wings with jagged black margins, while females run duller brown with pale orange patches.

Caterpillars feed on lawn grasses and other turf species, so this skipper turns up most often over mowed yards, golf courses, and roadside grass rather than forest or garden flowers. Its low, fast flight pattern is often the first clue that a visitor is watching a skipper rather than a true butterfly.

7. Asian Swallowtail / Xuthus Swallowtail

The Asian swallowtail (Papilio xuthus), also called the Chinese yellow swallowtail or Xuthus swallowtail, is the only true swallowtail established in Hawaii. Pale yellow-green wings marked with black tiger stripes and a short tail on each hindwing make it easy to identify next to the smaller whites and blues sharing the same gardens.

Caterpillars feed on citrus leaves, so backyard orange and lime trees across the islands double as nurseries for this species. Swallowtails form one of the most recognizable butterfly families worldwide, with large, often tailed species found from Hawaii’s citrus groves to the rainforest edges of Madagascar.

8. Large Orange Sulphur

The large orange sulphur (Phoebis agarithe) brings a wash of deep orange-yellow to Hawaii’s lowland gardens, with a wingspan that outsizes most of the other sulphurs and whites on this list. Males tend toward a richer orange while females run paler and more yellow, both with a thin dark border along the wing edges.

Caterpillars feed on legume trees and shrubs, including several Cassia species planted widely as ornamentals. This sulphur belongs to a large, mostly tropical family that reaches its greatest diversity in places like the Amazon rainforest, where dozens of closely related sulphur species overlap along forest edges.

9. Pea Blue

The pea blue (Lampides boeticus) is a small, fast-flying butterfly with pale gray-blue wings marked by thin white-edged bands and a pair of black, eye-like spots near short tail streamers on each hindwing. The species is native across much of Asia, Africa, and Australia and has since spread through much of the Pacific, including Hawaii.

Caterpillars bore directly into the seed pods of peas, beans, and other legumes, which is how the butterfly earned its common name. This diet overlaps closely with another small blue covered later on this list, and the shared host plants explain why the two are so often confused in the field.

Important Note: Pea blue and long-tailed blue are common names historically applied to the same species, Lampides boeticus. Field guides and regional checklists sometimes list both names, which can make Hawaii’s small-blue identification confusing for beginners.

10. Western Pygmy Blue

The western pygmy blue (Brephidium exilis) ranks among the smallest butterflies anywhere in the world, with a wingspan that rarely stretches past half an inch. Coppery brown wings with a dusting of blue near the body give this tiny species a subtle, easy-to-overlook appearance.

Caterpillars feed on saltbush, pigweed, and other low-growing plants tolerant of Hawaii’s driest coastal flats, which is exactly where this butterfly turns up most often. Its ability to colonize such marginal, salty habitat likely helped it reach and establish on the islands with little human assistance.

11. Gram Blue

The gram blue (Euchrysops cnejus) is another small blue butterfly that reached Hawaii from its native range across South and Southeast Asia and the Pacific. Males show a soft violet-blue upper wing surface, while females carry more brown shading along the wing margins.

Caterpillars feed on gram, cowpea, and other legume crops, a diet that overlaps closely with the pea blue and has made the two species easy to mix up in the field. Checking the underside wing pattern, rather than color alone, is usually the fastest way to tell Hawaii’s small blues apart.

12. American Lady

The American lady (Vanessa virginiensis) shares its genus with Hawaii’s native Kamehameha butterfly but arrived on the islands independently as a stray or introduced visitor. Orange-brown wings marked with white forewing spots and two large eyespots on the underside of each hindwing set it apart from the otherwise similar painted lady.

Caterpillars feed on everlasting plants and other composite-family herbs, building loose silk shelters among the leaves as they grow. The species is common across the mainland United States, including open fields throughout Colorado, where it relies on many of the same host plants it uses in Hawaii.

13. Painted Lady

The painted lady (Vanessa cardui) is one of the most widely distributed butterflies on Earth, found on every continent except Antarctica and South America. Orange, black, and white patterning across the wings, paired with four small eyespots on the hindwing underside, separates this species from its American lady relative.

Thistles are the preferred host plant, though the caterpillars accept a wide range of other plants when thistle isn’t available. Painted ladies are strong, erratic fliers capable of covering long distances, which likely explains how the species reached Hawaii’s isolated shores in the first place.

14. Red Admiral

The red admiral (Vanessa atalanta) shows dark, almost black wings crossed by bold orange-red bands, with a scatter of white spots near each forewing tip. The pattern is bold enough that this species rarely gets mistaken for anything else sharing the same gardens.

Caterpillars feed on nettles, the same general plant family used by Hawaii’s native Kamehameha butterfly, though the red admiral itself is an introduced stray rather than an island native. The species is familiar to butterfly watchers across much of North America, including common sightings throughout Canada during the warmer months.

15. Sleepy Orange

The sleepy orange (Abaeis nicippe) carries bright orange-yellow wings trimmed with a dark, uneven black border that thickens noticeably in cooler-weather forms. Despite the name, there is nothing sluggish about its flight, which tends to be quick and low to the ground.

Caterpillars feed on senna and other legume shrubs common in Hawaii’s drier lowland areas, where this sulphur is most often spotted patrolling roadside edges and open scrub.

16. Long-Tailed Blue

The long-tailed blue is the more familiar common name for Lampides boeticus, the same species profiled earlier on this list as the pea blue; both names refer to the thin, thread-like tail streamers trailing off each hindwing. Pale lavender-blue coloring on the upper wings and a busy pattern of brown and white bands on the underside make it one of the more distinctly marked small butterflies in Hawaii.

Because legume pods make up the bulk of the caterpillar diet, gardeners growing beans, peas, or ornamental legumes in Hawaii often find this species nearby without trying to attract it. Hawaii’s other small, jewel-toned butterflies deserve a close look too, and readers curious about color variation across the group can compare notes with mainland purple butterflies that show a similar violet sheen under the right light.

17. Lesser Grass-Blue

The lesser grass-blue (Zizina otis) is a tiny, pale blue butterfly common across Hawaii’s lawns, parks, and roadside verges wherever low legumes like clover take hold. Males show a soft violet-blue upper wing surface that fades quickly to brown along the edges, while females run mostly brown with only a faint blue dusting near the body.

This species flies low and settles often, making it one of the easier small blues to observe up close despite its size. Along with the pea blue and gram blue, the lesser grass-blue rounds out a trio of tiny, legume-feeding butterflies that are easy to overlook but turn up almost anywhere grass meets garden in Hawaii.

Hawaii’s 17 types of butterflies trace two very different stories: a pair of ancient islanders that evolved in isolation over millions of years, and fifteen more recent arrivals that found open niches once people, plants, and cargo started crossing the Pacific. Spotting the difference between a native Kamehameha and an introduced painted lady comes down to practice, host-plant knowledge, and a bit of patience with a field guide.

Butterflies are only one thread in Hawaii’s unusual wildlife story. The same isolation that produced two endemic butterflies also shaped the islands’ frogs, crabs, dolphins, and doves, each with its own mix of ancient natives and recent arrivals worth a closer look.