60 Types of Butterflies in Vermont, From Monarchs to Skippers
October 14, 2026
Vermont’s fields, bogs, and hardwood forests support far more butterflies than most residents realize. According to the Vermont Center for Ecostudies’ Vermont Atlas of Life, the Checklist of the Butterflies of Vermont is now comprised of 120 species in 5 families with 106 native species, 10 vagrant species, and 4 introduced species. That means the handful of orange and white wings fluttering past a garden represent only a fraction of what actually calls the state home.
Tracking down this diversity is not new. Community scientists have been documenting Vermont’s butterflies for over two decades, and from 2002 to 2007, participants attempted to verify the presence of as many species of butterfly as possible within spatially defined atlas blocks across the state.
That groundwork now helps researchers measure how populations shift as the climate and landscape change. If you’re curious how Vermont’s count compares elsewhere, it’s worth looking at how many butterfly species exist worldwide or how a tropical hotspot like Madagascar’s butterfly fauna stacks up against a cold-winter state like Vermont.
Below are 60 species a patient observer can realistically find across Vermont’s meadows, forest edges, wetlands, and backyard gardens, organized roughly by family, from the showy swallowtails down to the easily overlooked skippers.
Pro Tip: Most Vermont butterflies are easiest to find on sunny, calm days between late morning and mid-afternoon, when they bask and nectar most actively. Overcast or windy conditions send almost everything into hiding.
1. Monarch
The monarch (Danaus plexippus) is the butterfly most Vermonters picture first: bright orange wings crossed by thick black veins and bordered with white-spotted black margins. Caterpillars feed exclusively on milkweed, and the toxins they absorb make adults distasteful to most birds, a chemical defense tied to the state’s broader web of poisonous animals in Vermont.
Monarchs no longer arrive in the numbers older Vermonters remember. The IUCN reports the migrating population has declined by as much as 72% in the past decade due to habitat loss, climate change, and widespread insecticide and herbicide use, and a recent Monarch Species Status Assessment from the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service puts eastern migratory monarchs at a 56 to 74% probability of extinction by 2080. Vermont is also home to other at-risk species tracked on the state’s list of endangered animals in Vermont, and the monarch’s migratory population increasingly belongs in that conversation.
2. Eastern Tiger Swallowtail
The Eastern tiger swallowtail (Papilio glaucus) is a large, lemon-yellow butterfly marked with bold black tiger stripes and blue scaling along the hindwing tails. Females sometimes appear in a dark morph that mimics the toxic pipevine swallowtail, though that form is uncommon this far north.
Vermont actually hosts three look-alike tiger swallowtails, and the Canadian tiger swallowtail, the Eastern tiger swallowtail, and the Midsummer tiger swallowtail are difficult, but not impossible, to distinguish. Wing size, stripe width, and flight timing all help separate them in the field.
3. Canadian Tiger Swallowtail
The Canadian tiger swallowtail (Papilio canadensis) looks like a smaller, more compact version of its eastern cousin, with a single continuous yellow band along the forewing margin rather than a broken row of spots. It flies earlier in the season, typically from late May into June, and sticks to cooler northern hardwood forests and forest edges.
Caterpillars feed on aspen, birch, and cherry, which explains why this species thrives in Vermont’s northern counties and higher elevations where those trees dominate.
4. Black Swallowtail
The black swallowtail (Papilio polyxenes) is mostly black with two rows of yellow spots and a dusting of blue between them, plus a small orange eyespot near the tail. Gardeners often meet this species as a caterpillar first, since the green-and-black striped larvae feed readily on carrot, parsley, dill, and other garden herbs in the carrot family.
Adults favor open fields, roadsides, and gardens, where they nectar on clover, milkweed, and thistle through most of the summer.
5. Spicebush Swallowtail
The spicebush swallowtail (Papilio troilus) is a blue-green-washed black swallowtail that often gets mistaken for the dark morph of the Eastern tiger swallowtail. Caterpillars feed on spicebush and sassafras, and young larvae fold leaves into shelters while sporting large fake eyespots meant to startle predators.
| Swallowtail | Key Field Mark | Flight Period in Vermont | Caterpillar Host Plant |
|---|---|---|---|
| Eastern Tiger Swallowtail | Yellow with broken black tiger stripes | June–August | Wild cherry, tulip tree |
| Canadian Tiger Swallowtail | Continuous yellow forewing band | Late May–June | Aspen, birch, cherry |
| Black Swallowtail | Black with double row of yellow spots | May–September | Carrot family herbs |
| Spicebush Swallowtail | Blue-green wash, no tiger stripes | June–August | Spicebush, sassafras |
| Giant Swallowtail | Diagonal yellow band, very large | Rare, July–August | Prickly ash, hop tree |
6. Mourning Cloak
The mourning cloak (Nymphalis antiopa) is unmistakable: deep maroon-brown wings edged in cream-yellow with a row of blue spots just inside the border. It is also one of the first butterflies seen each spring because adults overwinter as adults, tucked into tree bark crevices, and emerge to fly on warm days even while snow still lingers.
This same cold-hardy strategy lets mourning cloaks range far beyond Vermont, into desert states like Arizona, where entirely different butterfly communities dominate.
7. Red Admiral
The red admiral (Vanessa atalanta) has black wings crossed by a bright orange-red band with white spots near the wingtips. It is one of Vermont’s most reliable backyard butterflies, and it ranks among the common “generalist” butterflies that can be found in almost any backyard, unlike habitat specialists that need a specific wetland or bog to survive.
Red admirals migrate north each spring from warmer regions and often show a strong attraction to overripe fruit, sap, and even spilled beer over flower nectar.
8. Painted Lady
The painted lady (Vanessa cardui) is a mottled orange, black, and white butterfly with a row of small blue-centered eyespots on the hindwing underside. It holds the title of most widely distributed butterfly on Earth, turning up on every continent except Antarctica and Australia.
Vermont sightings fluctuate year to year depending on how far north the species migrates, a pattern also seen in states like Colorado, where painted lady irruptions can number in the millions some years.
9. American Lady
The American lady (Vanessa virginiensis) looks similar to the painted lady but shows two large eyespots on the hindwing underside instead of a row of small ones, plus a small white dot on an orange patch near the forewing tip. Caterpillars build silk-and-leaf shelters on pussytoes and pearly everlasting, their preferred host plants.
10. Question Mark
The question mark (Polygonia interrogationis) earns its name from a tiny silver mark on the hindwing underside that resembles a punctuation question mark, broken into a curved line and a dot. Its jagged, leaf-shaped wing outline and mottled brown underside provide excellent camouflage against tree bark and dead leaves.
This species overwinters as an adult, so a question mark basking on a warm March afternoon may already be several months old.
11. Eastern Comma
The Eastern comma (Polygonia comma) closely resembles the question mark but is smaller, with a silver mark shaped like a simple comma rather than a question mark on the hindwing underside. Caterpillars feed on elm, hops, and nettle, and adults are frequent visitors to sap flows and rotting fruit in forest clearings.
12. Gray Comma
The gray comma (Polygonia progne) is less common than its orange cousins and shows a grayer, less contrasty underside with a thin, hook-shaped silver comma mark. It prefers open woodland edges near gooseberry and currant shrubs, the primary host plants for its caterpillars.
13. Compton Tortoiseshell
The Compton tortoiseshell (Nymphalis vaualbum) is a large anglewing with orange-and-brown patterned wings and a single white spot on each forewing. Like the mourning cloak, adults overwinter in tree cavities and emerge on the first mild days of late winter, making it one of the earliest butterflies active in Vermont’s forests.
14. Milbert’s Tortoiseshell
Milbert’s tortoiseshell (Aglais milberti) stands out with a dark brown base color crossed by a wide, fiery orange-and-yellow band near the wing margins. Caterpillars feed communally in silk webs on stinging nettle, and adults are strong, erratic fliers that favor wet meadows and streamside clearings.
15. White Admiral
The white admiral (Limenitis arthemis arthemis) is a dark blue-black butterfly crossed by a bold white band on both wings, with rows of orange and blue spots near the edges. It is the northern form of a species that shows dramatically different coloring farther south, a pattern of regional variation also seen among butterflies of the northern Great Lakes region, including Michigan.
16. Red-spotted Purple
The red-spotted purple (Limenitis arthemis astyanax) is the southern form of the same species as the white admiral, lacking the white band and instead showing iridescent blue-black wings with orange spots underneath. It mimics the toxic pipevine swallowtail, and the two forms can even interbreed where their ranges overlap in southern Vermont.
17. Viceroy
The viceroy (Limenitis archippus) is famous for mimicking the monarch’s orange-and-black pattern, though it is smaller and has a distinctive black line crossing the veins of the hindwing that monarchs lack. This mimicry works both ways: research has shown viceroys are themselves somewhat unpalatable, making this a case of mutual protection rather than one-sided deception among the many animals that eat butterflies and the defenses butterflies evolve against them.
18. Great Spangled Fritillary
The great spangled fritillary (Speyeria cybele) is a large orange butterfly with black markings above and a band of large silver spots on the hindwing underside. Females lay eggs near violets in late summer, but the caterpillars hatch, overwinter without feeding, and don’t begin eating until the following spring.
19. Aphrodite Fritillary
The Aphrodite fritillary (Speyeria aphrodite) closely resembles the great spangled fritillary but is slightly smaller, with a narrower black border and a small black spot near the base of the forewing underside that its larger cousin lacks. It favors drier meadows and hayfields over the damper habitats great spangled fritillaries prefer.
20. Atlantis Fritillary
The Atlantis fritillary (Speyeria atlantis) is the smallest of Vermont’s large silver-spotted fritillaries, identifiable by the solid black border running along its wing margins. It prefers cooler, higher-elevation meadows and forest openings than its two larger relatives.
21. Silver-bordered Fritillary
The silver-bordered fritillary (Boloria bellona‘s smaller wetland cousin, Boloria selene) is a petite orange fritillary with a checkered black pattern and a row of silver crescents along the hindwing underside margin. It depends on wet meadows and marsh edges where violets grow in damp soil, making it far more habitat-restricted than the woodland fritillaries.
22. Meadow Fritillary
The meadow fritillary (Boloria bellona) lacks the silver spotting of its wetland relative, showing a plain, mottled orange-brown underside instead. True to its name, it favors drier hayfields, pastures, and roadside meadows across the state, often flying low and fast just above the grass.
23. Pearl Crescent
The pearl crescent (Phyciodes tharos) is a small orange-and-black checkered butterfly, one of the most common species in open fields throughout the warmer months. It produces multiple generations each summer, so individuals can be spotted from May through September, much like similar crescent species found across Ohio and other Midwestern states.
24. Northern Crescent
The Northern crescent (Phyciodes cocyta) is nearly identical to the pearl crescent and the two are best separated by range, flight timing, and subtle underside markings rather than color alone. It tends to fly in a single generation per year and favors cooler, more northerly meadows than its widespread cousin.
25. Baltimore Checkerspot
The Baltimore checkerspot (Euphydryas phaeton) is strikingly patterned with black wings checkered in orange and cream spots, making it one of the most distinctive butterflies in the state. Caterpillars feed on turtlehead in wet meadows and overwinter communally in a silk web before resuming feeding in spring.
Important Note: Because turtlehead habitat has shrunk with wetland development, the Baltimore checkerspot is considered uncommon in parts of Vermont and is a species conservationists watch closely during butterfly surveys.
26. Common Ringlet
The common ringlet (Coenonympha tullia) is a small, plain tan-orange butterfly with a weak, bouncing flight low over grass. It has only one small eyespot on the forewing underside, if any, which helps separate it from the more heavily spotted satyrs it shares open meadows with.
27. Little Wood Satyr
The little wood satyr (Megisto cymela) is a brown butterfly with two prominent yellow-ringed black eyespots on each wing, giving it an owlish look when wings are spread. It flies with a distinctive bouncing, erratic pattern along the edges of woodlands and shaded grassy trails in early summer.
28. Northern Pearly-eye
The Northern pearly-eye (Lethe anthedon) is a woodland satyr with rows of dark, pale-ringed eyespots on brown wings, usually seen perched on tree trunks rather than nectaring on flowers. Adults feed mainly on sap, rotting fruit, and fungi instead of flower nectar, and they prefer shaded deciduous forest over open fields.
29. Eyed Brown
The eyed brown (Lethe eurydice) resembles the Northern pearly-eye but sticks almost exclusively to sedge-dominated wetlands, where its caterpillars feed on sedges rather than grasses. Rows of yellow-ringed eyespots line both wings, and its flight is slow and fluttery, close to the vegetation.
30. Common Wood-Nymph
The common wood-nymph (Cercyonis pegala) is a brown butterfly with one or two large yellow-ringed eyespots near the forewing tip, set against a variable amount of yellow shading depending on regional subspecies. It prefers tall-grass meadows and old fields, a habitat preference shared by wood-nymph populations as far away as Kansas, where prairie grasslands support large numbers of this species.
31. Cabbage White
The cabbage white (Pieris rapae) is likely Vermont’s most frequently seen butterfly, a plain white species with one or two small black spots on each forewing. Introduced from Europe in the 1860s, it has since become one of the most widespread butterflies in North America, found everywhere from Vermont gardens to farmland in Iowa.
32. Clouded Sulphur
The clouded sulphur (Colias philodice) is a pale yellow butterfly with black wing borders, commonly seen fluttering low over clover fields and roadsides all summer. It frequently hybridizes with the similar orange sulphur where their ranges overlap, producing intermediate colored individuals, a pattern also documented among sulphur populations in Indiana.
33. Orange Sulphur
The orange sulphur (Colias eurytheme) looks much like the clouded sulphur but shows an orange wash across the upper wing surface, visible mainly in flight since the wings close when the butterfly lands. Both sulphur species feed on clover and alfalfa as caterpillars, which is why they’re so common around hayfields and farm edges.
34. Pink-edged Sulphur
The pink-edged sulphur (Colias interior) is a plain yellow butterfly named for the faint pink fringe along its wing edges, visible up close. Unlike the farmland-loving clouded and orange sulphurs, this species favors specific priority survey blocks such as those in the Silvio O. Conte National Fish and Wildlife Refuge, where its caterpillar host plant, blueberry, grows in acidic, open woodland soil.
35. American Copper
The American copper (Lycaena phlaeas) is a small butterfly with fiery orange forewings spotted in black and darker brown hindwings edged in orange. It favors dry, disturbed habitats like gravel pits, dry meadows, and roadsides where its host plant, sheep sorrel, grows readily.
36. Eastern Tailed-Blue
The Eastern tailed-blue (Cupido comyntas) is one of Vermont’s smallest butterflies, pale blue above in males and brownish-gray in females, with a tiny tail on each hindwing and small orange spots near it. It produces several generations each year and is common in almost any open, weedy habitat with clover present.
37. Spring Azure
The spring azure (Celastrina ladon) is a delicate pale blue butterfly, one of the earliest species seen each year, often appearing before many trees have fully leafed out. Its coloring places it among the handful of true blue and purple-toned butterflies found in the Northeast, and it is now understood to represent a complex of closely related species rather than one uniform population.
38. Silvery Blue
The silvery blue (Glaucopsyche lygdamus) is a small butterfly with silvery-blue upper wings in males and duller brown-blue in females, with a single row of black spots ringed in white on the hindwing underside. It flies in a single generation each spring, tied closely to the bloom of its vetch host plants.
39. Coral Hairstreak
The coral hairstreak (Satyrium titus) lacks the thin tails typical of most hairstreaks but makes up for it with a striking row of orange-red spots along the hindwing margin. It feeds almost exclusively on wild cherry and black cherry as a caterpillar and favors butterfly weed and dogbane as nectar sources.
40. Banded Hairstreak
The banded hairstreak (Satyrium calanus) is a grayish-brown hairstreak with a faint postmedian band of dark-edged spots and a small orange eyespot near short hindwing tails. Caterpillars feed on oak and hickory, so adults tend to concentrate around mature hardwood forest edges in midsummer.
41. Gray Hairstreak
The gray hairstreak (Strymon melinus) is the most widespread hairstreak in North America, identifiable by its slate-gray wings, a thin white-and-black postmedian line, and a bright orange spot near the tails. Unlike many hairstreaks tied to one host plant, its caterpillars feed on a broad range of plants in the pea and mallow families.
42. Brown Elfin
The brown elfin (Callophrys augustinus) is a small, tailless hairstreak with mottled reddish-brown wings that provide excellent camouflage against dead leaves and bark. It flies early in spring and favors acidic habitats like blueberry barrens and bog edges, where its caterpillars feed on heath family shrubs.
43. Hobomok Skipper
The Hobomok skipper (Poanes hobomok) is a chunky orange-and-brown skipper with a distinctive pattern of golden patches on the forewing above. A dark, mostly brown form occurs in some females, adding variability that can confuse quick identification in the field.
44. European Skipper
The European skipper (Thymelicus lineola) is a small, bright orange skipper with narrow black wing borders and no distinct markings, a non-native species introduced from Europe that has since spread widely across hayfields and roadsides. Unlike most Vermont skippers, it flies only in early summer and often appears in large, synchronized numbers where introduced timothy grass grows.
45. Peck’s Skipper
Peck’s skipper (Polites peckius) shows a checkered pattern of orange and dark brown patches on the hindwing underside, resembling a small patchwork quilt. It is a common garden visitor throughout summer, frequently seen nectaring on low flowers alongside other small skippers.
46. Silver-spotted Skipper
The silver-spotted skipper (Epargyreus clarus) is the largest and easiest-to-identify skipper in Vermont, with large brown wings marked by a bold, irregular white-silver patch on the hindwing underside. It is widespread across the eastern United States, found in habitats ranging from Vermont forest edges to the woodlands of Arkansas.
47. Least Skipper
The least skipper (Ancyloxypha numitor) is among the smallest butterflies in Vermont, with dull orange hindwings and darker brown forewings, flying with a weak, fluttery pattern low over grass. It favors damp meadows, ditches, and marsh edges where its grass host plants grow in moist soil.
48. Dreamy Duskywing
The dreamy duskywing (Erynnis icelus) is a dusky brown skipper lacking the clear white spots found on many other duskywings, giving it a plainer, more uniform appearance. It flies early in spring, often alongside spring azures and mourning cloaks, and favors forest clearings with aspen and willow saplings nearby.
49. Juvenal’s Duskywing
Juvenal’s duskywing (Erynnis juvenalis) closely resembles the dreamy duskywing but shows small transparent spots near the forewing tip and two pale dots on the hindwing underside that help separate the species. Caterpillars feed on oak leaves, and adults are most active in forest openings during a brief flight window in May.
50. Common Sootywing
The common sootywing (Pholisora catullus) is a small, nearly all-black skipper scattered with tiny white dots across the forewing, giving it a sooty, speckled appearance. It favors disturbed, weedy habitats like vacant lots and garden edges where its host plant, lamb’s quarters, commonly grows.
51. Dun Skipper
The dun skipper (Euphyes vestris) is a plain brown skipper with little to no distinct marking, though males show a small black stigma, a scent patch, across the forewing. It favors damp meadows and woodland edges where sedges, its caterpillar host plant, grow in moist soil.
52. Giant Swallowtail
The giant swallowtail (Papilio cresphontes) is the largest butterfly that occasionally reaches Vermont, with dark brown wings crossed by a bold diagonal band of yellow spots. Historically a stray from warmer regions, it has become increasingly established in parts of the state, much as it remains a familiar year-round resident farther south in Texas.
53. Little Yellow
The little yellow (Pyrisitia lisa) is a small, pale yellow butterfly with thin black wing borders, a southern species that strays north into Vermont only occasionally, usually in late summer. It cannot survive Vermont winters, so any individuals seen represent temporary migrants rather than an established breeding population.
54. Cloudless Sulphur
The cloudless sulphur (Phoebis sennae) is a large, bright lemon-yellow butterfly, notably bigger than Vermont’s resident sulphurs, that occasionally wanders north during late-summer dispersal flights. It breeds year-round in warmer climates such as Florida, where its senna host plants grow continuously, but Vermont sightings remain uncommon strays.
55. Mustard White
The mustard white (Pieris oleracea) is a native white butterfly, plainer than the introduced cabbage white, with faint gray veining visible on the underside, especially in spring-generation individuals. It favors moist woodland clearings and stream edges where native mustard family plants, its larval host, grow in filtered shade.
56. West Virginia White
The West Virginia white (Pieris virginiensis) looks similar to the mustard white but is slightly more translucent and restricted to rich, undisturbed hardwood forests with intact populations of toothwort, its only caterpillar host plant. It is considered uncommon and sensitive to forest disturbance, since invasive garlic mustard can act as an ecological trap that kills caterpillars that mistakenly lay eggs on it.
57. Harvester
The harvester (Feniseca tarquinius) holds a rare distinction among North American butterflies: its caterpillars are carnivorous, feeding exclusively on woolly aphids rather than plant tissue. The small orange-and-brown adult is correspondingly rare and local, found near alder and beech trees where aphid colonies cluster on branches.
Key Insight: Because harvester caterpillars eat aphids instead of leaves, finding this species often means looking for aphid colonies first and the butterfly second.
58. Bog Copper
The bog copper (Lycaena epixanthe) is a small, pale copper-brown butterfly tied entirely to sphagnum bogs, where its caterpillars feed exclusively on cranberry. Adults rarely stray more than a few feet from the bog mat itself, making this one of Vermont’s most habitat-restricted butterflies.
59. Bronze Copper
The bronze copper (Lycaena hyllus) is larger than most coppers, with coppery-orange forewings in males, duller brown-gray wings with an orange band in females, and a bright orange hindwing border in both sexes. It favors wet meadows and marsh edges where curly dock and other knotweed-family plants, its larval hosts, grow in damp soil.
60. Acadian Hairstreak
The Acadian hairstreak (Satyrium acadicum) is a gray hairstreak-like butterfly with a row of orange-capped black spots along the hindwing margin and short tails typical of the genus. It sticks close to willow thickets along streams and wetland edges, since willow is the sole host plant for its caterpillars.
Sixty species only scratches the surface of what flies across Vermont each year, and the state’s full checklist runs to 120 species once rare vagrants and historic records are counted. Anyone interested in going further can join the ongoing Second Vermont Butterfly Atlas as a volunteer, submitting photos through eButterfly or iNaturalist to help researchers track how populations shift over time.
A few simple habitat choices go a long way toward supporting this diversity:
- Plant native milkweed for monarchs and native violets for fritillaries
- Leave a patch of stinging nettle for commas, question marks, and tortoiseshells
- Avoid mowing clover-rich lawns until after peak flight season
- Skip pesticides on flowering plants that butterflies visit for nectar
- Protect wet meadows and bog edges where specialist species like the bog copper depend on a single host plant
Butterflies share Vermont’s skies with plenty of other wildlife worth watching for, including the state’s resident owl species and hawks that hunt the same meadows and forest edges where these 60 butterflies spend their short, busy summers.