Easy Butterfly Identification

When people see a butterfly in their garden, they often wonder, "What type is this?" Capturing a photo helps with identification, but even without one, there are general ways to determine the type.

This post simplifies Florida (and US) butterfly identification into five families.

Classification

There are hundreds of thousands of types of butterflies on earth. However, they, like all living organisms are classified in a system called binomial nomenclature. This is how scientists group animals (and plants) to tell which ones are closely related. If you remember from science class, or even if not, the general classification is: Kingdom, phylum, class, order, family, genus, species.

All Butterflies are animals (kingdom). They are arthropods (phylum), specifically insects (class) and they are of the scaly winged group (order) we call lepidoptera, along with their close relatives, moths. Then they are separated into families, and this is where this post is headed.

When it comes to families, there are some major ones that we see in the US, and especially in Florida. All of this classification is based on visual characteristics, so if you catch a peek of one, even if for a brief moment, there is a fair chance you will be able to know which family it belongs to, especially with some knowledge of their visible traits. Keep reading, you may know more about butterflies than you thought.

Florida Butterfly Families

Swallowtails

Swallowtails are a big family, literally. The largest kinds of butterflies on the planet are Swallowtails. There are many species across Florida and the US, but most of them are hard to miss due to their very large size (for a butterfly). Most of them are black with yellow, blue or white (often stripes) and some smaller orange or red markings. Along with their size, they are also recognizable by the way their hind wings have tails. With the exception of the Polydamas Swallowtail, all of the Florida Swallowtails have tails.

This is a sample of Florida Swallowtails

Whites and Sulphurs

This type of butterfly can be super small or moderately large (for a butterfly). The easiest descriptor of Sulphurs is their bright yellow coloring and fast, erratic flight. They can be white, yellow, lime green or orange. These can be hard to photograph because of their zippy speed, but I am sure you recognize them from the photo below. If it is solid yellow, it is a Sulphur!

Sulphurs and Whites

Gossamer-Wings

These smaller sized butterflies require a bit more focus, but if you are near a plumbago shrub on a sunny day you may see a little bluish gray butterfly flying around. Hairstreaks and Blues are common examples of this group. They are generally shades of gray or black. The Atala butterfly is a south Florida beauty with a bright reddish orange abdomen that also belongs to this tiny club.

Gossamer-winged butterflies are tiny but beautiful

Brush-footed Butterflies

This family is vast. The name comes from a characteristic that you can see if you look closely at their front set of legs. All insects have six legs, but they appear to only have four. Their front set of legs is generally tucked up under their thorax, which makes them easy to miss. This mixed group is sort of a catch-all when it comes to visible characteristics. They come in many sizes, but tend to be medium-ish. Colors vary wildly. This gang includes popular species like Monarchs, Zebra Longwings, Crescents, Buckeyes and Peacocks. The family can be sub-divided for more detail, but for now, lets just clump them as the motley bunch they are, diverse and beautiful! If you can't easily fit a butterfly into the other four families in this post, assume it's a brush-foot.

Brush-footed butterflies are a large family

Skippers

For the grand finale, lets consider the drab colored Skipper family. You don't hear much about these guys and nobody displays them in public butterfly houses. This common family is a bit of a mix between moths and butterflies, depending on which classifier you ask. They are brown and gray with not too many colors, which makes most people call them moths. But, they fly during the day, which is a butterfly trait. Since my vote goes to having as many butterflies in my life as possible, I (and others) vote butterfly for these simple winged garden visitors.

Common Skippers are often overlooked as butterflies

And there you have it, If you can learn those five family names (Swallowtail, Sulphur, Gossamer-wings, Brush-footed and Skipper), you will be able to broadly identify most butterflies in Florida and in the US!

Read more about how to start your own Florida butterfly habitat and attract these wonders!