Virginia is home to a remarkably diverse butterfly population. Over 170 species have been recorded in the state, ranging from tiny blues to large, brilliant swallowtails. The variety of butterflies reflects Virginia’s diverse ecosystems – from the mountains to the coastal plain, there are habitats and host plants to support many different butterfly species.
In this article, we’ll explore some of the most common and interesting butterflies found in Virginia. Whether you’re a beginning butterfly watcher or a seasoned veteran, you’re sure to find some familiar favorites here as well as a few new species to look for on your next outing.
Swallowtails
Swallowtails are large, colorful butterflies in the family Papilionidae. With wingspans over 3 inches, they are some of the biggest butterflies in Virginia. Many swallowtails have distinctive tail-like projections on their hindwings.
Eastern Tiger Swallowtail
The Eastern Tiger Swallowtail (Papilio glaucus) is Virginia’s state insect. It’s a familiar sight in backyards and gardens across the state. Males are bright yellow with black “tiger stripes.” Females may be yellow or black. Look for them on flowers like milkweed and lilac. The caterpillar is green with two black and yellow eyespots resembling a snake’s head.
Spicebush Swallowtail
The Spicebush Swallowtail (Papilio troilus) is nearly as large as the Tiger Swallowtail. It’s dark black with rows of pale yellow spots. Look for these swallowtails in moist woodlands where they lay their eggs on spicebush and sassafras. The plump green caterpillar has two orange eyespots.
Black Swallowtail
The Black Swallowtail (Papilio polyxenes) is commonly seen across Virginia. It resembles the dark form of the female Tiger Swallowtail. The caterpillar is green with black bands and yellow dots – it feeds on carrots and other herbs. Adults sip nectar from flowers like lilac, phlox, and butterfly bush.
Pipevine Swallowtail
The Pipevine Swallowtail (Battus philenor) is mostly black with bright blue along the hindwings. It gets toxic compounds from its caterpillar host plant Virginia snakeroot or pipevine. This provides protection from predators. Adults visit flowers including lilac milkweed, and phlox.
Sulphurs
Sulphur butterflies are medium-sized with bright yellow or orange wings. They are fast, erratic fliers. Three sulphur species are particularly common in Virginia.
Clouded Sulphur
The Clouded Sulphur (Colias philodice) is bright lemon-yellow Look for dark wing edges and a reddish-orange patch on the forewings Males are solid yellow but females may be pale yellow or almost white. Host plants include clover, vetch, and alfalfa.
Orange Sulphur
The Orange Sulphur (Colias eurytheme) is harder to distinguish from the Clouded Sulphur. It has an orange patch on all four wings. Caterpillars feed on plants like alfalfa and vetch. Adults visit composites like asters.
Cloudless Sulphur
The Cloudless Sulphur (Phoebis sennae) lives up to its name – it’s a solid bright yellow without the dark wing borders seen on other sulphurs. Look for it in open, sunny habitats statewide. Caterpillars eat plants like senna and partridge pea.
Brushfoots
Brushfoots (or four-footed butterflies) make up the diverse Nymphalidae family. They’re called “brushfoots” because their front pair of legs is small and brushy. Many familiar butterflies like monarchs, admirals, and fritillaries belong to this group.
Monarch
The Monarch (Danaus plexippus) is probably Virginia’s most famous butterfly. Its bright orange wings with black veins and white spots are iconic. Look for them anywhere milkweed grows so the caterpillars can feed. Monarchs migrate south in fall and north again in spring.
Red Admiral
The Red Admiral (Vanessa atalanta) has velvety black wings with red-orange bands across the top. The caterpillar feeds on stinging nettle. Adults sip sap, rotting fruit, and flower nectar. Red Admirals migrate south in winter but may recolonize Virginia each spring.
American Lady
The American Lady (Vanessa virginiensis) has rusty orange wings with black and white spots. Look for the mottled brown camouflage pattern on the underwings. Caterpillars feed on pussytoes, snapdragons, and other plants. Adults visit composites, mints, and trees like oak for sap.
Great Spangled Fritillary
The showy Great Spangled Fritillary (Speyeria cybele) lives up to its name. The top of the wings are burnt orange with black speckles. Look for big silver-white spots on the hindwing undersides. Caterpillars feed solely on violets.
Pearl Crescent
The Pearl Crescent (Phyciodes tharos) is small with predominantly orange wings and intricate black patterning. The underside has pearl-like crescents. Caterpillars feed on asters. Adults sip nectar from composites, mints, and even tree sap.
Blues
Blues are tiny butterflies in the gossamer-winged family Lycaenidae. They are mostly grayish-blue above with gray, tan, or orange undersides decorated with small black spots. Blues are some of the smallest butterflies in Virginia.
Eastern Tailed Blue
The Eastern Tailed Blue (Cupido comyntas) is common in gardens statewide. Males are bright blue above while females are gray-brown. A bright orange spot sits near two tiny “tails” on the hindwing. Caterpillars eat peas, vetch, clover, and other legumes.
Spring Azure
The Spring Azure (Celastrina ladon) has lavender-blue wings with black edges and white fringe. The gray underside has a distinct solid black line. These butterflies fly low to the ground in open fields and meadows. Caterpillars feed on flowers like dogbane, viburnum, and blueberries.
Skippers
Skippers are stout-bodied butterflies in the family Hesperiidae. They have short antennae with hooked tips and thick bodies. Skippers have fast, darting flight patterns. Many frequent grassy areas.
Silver-spotted Skipper
The Silver-spotted Skipper (Epargyreus clarus) is a large dark brown skipper with bright silver-white patches on the undersides of its hindwings. It flies low through habitats like roadsides, fields, and forest edges. Caterpillars eat locust, wisteria, and other legumes.
Fiery Skipper
The aptly named Fiery Skipper (Hylephila phyleus) has bright orange wings with brown markings. It prefers grassy areas like meadows and lawns. Caterpillars feed on grasses before pupating in shelters rolled from leaves. Adults visit flowers.
Common Checkered-skipper
Checkered-skippers are orange-brown with a distinctive black and white pattern resembling checks or squares. The Common Checkered Skipper (Pyrgus communis) frequent open habitats like fields and clearings, perching on low plants. Caterpillars eat mallow and hibiscus.
Other Families
A few Virginia butterflies belong to less common families like the milkweed butterflies, metalmarks, and satyrs. Here are some examples:
Monarch
The Monarch (Danaus plexippus) in the milkweed family Danaidae is one of Virginia’s most famous butterfly species. Its bright orange wings with black veins are iconic.
Northern Pearly Eye
The Northern Pearly Eye (Lethe anthedon) is a small brown satyr with many eyespots on its wings. It inhabits grassy fields and openings. Caterpillars eat grasses like Virginia cutgrass.
Rounded Metalmark
The Rounded Metalmark (Calephelis perditalis) has orange wings with intricate black patterning. Tiny (less than 1 inch wingspan) and rare in Virginia, it inhabits salt marshes and mudflats along the coast. Host plants include saltmeadow cordgrass.
The bottom line is that Virginia is home to a huge diversity of butterfly species. Some are widespread and easy to spot, while others are rare, local, or highly seasonal. There are still discoveries being made – new county records and a handful of species that are entirely new to science.
So next time you’re out in nature, keep an eye out for a flutter of wings. You never know what beautiful, ephemeral creatures you might encounter. With over 170 species of butterflies documented so far, Virginia’s fluttering diversity is something to celebrate.
Monarch Butterflies in Virginia
Monarch butterfly Source: National Park Service
Monarch butterflies (Danaus plexippus) visit Virginia in the Summer and Fall, then fly out of the state. At least some migrate all the way to Mexico, where they spend the winter. Since 1996, the Virginia Living Museum has tagged and released over 1400 migrating adults. In February 2001, one was discovered in Mexico. In October 2008, another was photographed in Austin, Texas during its journey south.1
A special effort is underway to save the two migrating populations of the monarch butterfly which overwinter in California and Mexico. It expands its range seasonally from Mexico into Virginia and across North America. The only other insect known to make an equivalent long annual migration is the bogong in Australia.
The monarch population that migrates from wintering grounds in Mexico to the Northeast declined by 80% after the mid-1990s, dropping to only 200 million in 2018. The population that wintered in Monterey and Pacific Grove, California and migrated into the Pacific Northwest dropped by 98%, from 1.2 million to just 30,000.
Monarch butterflies transition from eggs to caterpillar, then metamorphose in a chrysalis into a butterfly Source: National Park Service, Monarch Life Cycle
Between 1993-2001, an average of 8.7 hectares (21.5 acres) of trees were occupied by overwintering monarchs in Mexico. Between 2002-2011, that dropped to 5.7 hectares (14 acres). Between 2011-2021, the size of the forest occupied in the winter dropped even further to 2.62 hectares (5.5 acres).
Source: Nature (on PBS), Inside a Monarch Swarm
In December 2020, the US Fish and Wildlife Service determined that monarch butterflies qualified as a threatened species under the Endangered Species Act of 1973. There was a 10% chance of the main population which migrated to Mexico going extinct in the next 10 years, and a 60-68% chance of the western population migrating to California going extinct within that time.2
However, the Federal agency announced that listing was “warranted but precluded” by lack of resources. The US Fish and Wildlife Service planned to focus on higher-priority species. The International Union for Conservation of Nature officially designated the species as “endangered” in 2022, due to the 20-90% population decline over several decades. Resource constraints were less relevant to the International Union for Conservation of Nature, while the US Fish and Wildlife Service would be responsible for work such as creating a restoration plan and designating critical habitat.
However, after biologists challenged the population models used to make the decision, the International Union for Conservation of Nature reversed its decision to designate the species as “endangered.” The models had not considered the possibility that in the 1900s, monarch butterfly populations were abnormally high because large-scale clearing of forests in the 1800s for agriculture had created abnormally high numbers of milkweed. Natural regrowth after fields were no longer farmed reduced the habitat acreage.
The International Union for Conservation of Nature declared in 2023 that the monarch was just “vulnerable” to extinction, rather than endangered. The population decline was not projected to continue, since the monarch population had stabilized around 2014 at about 55 million individuals.3
Recovery of the monarch is facilitated by people planting native species of milkweed, particularly common milkweed (Asclepias syriaca). The caterpillars in the Spring and Summer depend upon milkweed as their food source. Other species, such as the Milkweed Tussock Moth or Milkweed Tiger Moth (Euchaetes egle), also feed on milkweeds and absorb cardiac glycosides from the plants milky sap.
both monarch and Milkweed Tussock Moth caterpillars absorb the toxic sap from milkweed plants
plants in the milkweed family, such as Asclepias syriaca, provide toxins to monarch butterflies that protect the adults from predation
In the Fall, adult monarchs migrate through Virginia and from Virginia to the Gulf Coast before flying to Mexico. Migration occurs only in daylight. At night, the monarchs gather at “roosts” or “bivouacs” in trees. In the morning, after body temperatures rise to 55°F, the monarchs resume their journey south. Migration south requires starting in September or October, so on the trip the mornings will heat up soon enough to allow for a full day of flying.
Not all monarchs fly to Mexico. Some near the Georgia-Florida border may choose to spend the winter in South Florida roosts, while other go to pine, cypress, and eucalyptus trees on the California coast.4
adult monarchs that overwinter in Mexico feed on nectar and pollen
There is no guarantee that the migration will continue. On the West Coast, millions of monarchs living west of the Rocky Mountains used to migrate to overwinter in California at about 400 different sites. Voters approved a bond issue in 1988 to acquire the roosting sites. The California Department of Parks and Recreation, other government landowners, private corporations, and individuals sought to protect the overwintering trees from harvest, in contrast to illegal logging in Mexicos overwintering forests.
Excessive tree trimming, new development, and wildfires have damaged or destroyed sites and reduced their capacity to harbor adult butterflies. Drought has killed patches of non-native blue gum eucalyptus which had neared the end of their lifespan, but have protected monarchs for the last century. Pesticides in milkweed and plants used for nectar feeding have affected population numbers, and warming temperatures may have enticed some monarchs to become year-round residents rather than migrate south to warmer winter roosting sites.
In 2018 and 2019 the overwintering populations in California had dropped to 30,000 monarchs, with the largest number concentrating at Pismo State Beach. Population models suggested the species was at a tipping point, and in 2020 the Xerxes Society estimated the total number of migrating monarchs in California at just 2,000. That was a decline of 99.9% from the 10 million monarch butterflies that once lived in the state.
Larger populations of non-migrating monarchs may exist in San Francisco and other areas where milkweed is surviving year-round. Those populations keep the species from disappearing on the West Coast. As one professor commented regarding the San Franciso monarchs:5
in the recent past, West Coast monarchs migrated and overwintered at multiple s Source: Xerces Society, Western Monarch Count
The decline in the overwintering population may be offset by the natural increase in monarch populations during the summer. One female can lay as many as 500 eggs. A 2022 study reported that the summer population had been steady for the last 25 years, suggesting that efforts to expand the number of milkweed plants had not enhanced the natural recovery. According to one of the studys co-authors:6
monarch caterpillars spend time in a chrysalis to metamorphose into butterflies
The studys co-author was aware that populations had declined in the Midwestern breeding range, perhaps because of the herbicide glyphosate being used more widely in corn and soybean fields. In the northern part of that range, however, climate change had improved the habitat and summer breeding populations were increasing. The threat to the survival of the species was during from the southern migration and at the wintering sites, not an absence of milkweed during the summer.
The scientific conclusion is:7
The survey of colonies in 2023-24 revealed a 59% decline in the acreage covered by the overwintering insects compared to the previous year. The dry summer in 2023 lowered milkweed nectar availability during the summer. The hot, dry weather affected the autumn migration, resulting in the lowest number of monarchs in Mexico since the winter of 2013-14.8
| solar energy moving from leaf towards butterfly | waxy coating on milkweed leaf is no deterrent | multiple caterpillars seeking a meal | caterpillar on denuded milkweed plant |
| monarch chrysalis with ant visitor | adult soon after emerging from chrysalis | adult, almost ready to fly to Mexico | empty chrysalis after adult emerged |
Planting extra milkweed added another factor that disrupted the migration pattern. People interested in expanding the summer monarch population bought a non-native tropical milkweed, Asclepias curassavica, from garden stores. That milkweed reproduced and lived throughout the winters in southern Texas and along the Gulf Coast. Some monarchs adapted and established a year-round population, without migrating to Mexico for the winter.
As with the native milkweed species, the tropical milkweed is home to the protozoan parasite called OE (Ophryocystis elektroscirrha). Caterpillars ingest it along with the latex-rich juices of the milkweed plant, including the cardenolides that deter predation. Adult monarchs who start to emerge from their chrysalises carry spores of the parasite. The parasite prevents successful emergence of some adults, while those who do fly away and spread the parasite further are weakened and die prematurely.
tropical milkweed, Asclepias curassavica, survives over the winter and allows quick reinfection of migrating monarchs with a parasite Source: Wikipedia, Asclepias
The migration cycle weeds out the sick monarchs, blocking transmission of the spores to the wintering grounds. The milkweeds are annual plants, so during the winter all of them – including the infected milkweeds – die. That interrupts the infection process. When new migrants head north, healthy monarchs encounter newly-grown milkweed plants which have not been infected yet by the parasite, and a healthy monarch population expands again.
Infection by the parasite explains why at the end of summer, the population of monarchs starting the migration south is stable but winter populations are so thin. Assessments of night roosts document that the population declines significantly during the migration. The protozoan parasite OE, not an absence of milkweed or the presence of pesticides, appears to be the greatest threat to the migrating monarch population.
The non-native milkweed that lives during the winter provides a year-round source of the debilitating parasite. The first generation of migrants flying north in the spring can become infected, threatening the health of the whole summer “crop” of monarchs. The Xerxes Society says:9
monarch caterpillars graze from the underside of leaves, providing some protection from hungry birds unfamiliar with their bad taste
The US Fish and Wildlife Service declared in 2020 that the monarch qualified for being listed as a endangered or threatened species. Further action was precluded, however, because the Federal agency had higher priorities and lacked the staff to complete the listing process.
The International Union for Conservation of Nature declared the migratory monarchs of North America to be an “endangered” species and added it to the Red List in 2021. The US Fish and Wildlife Service announced on December 10, 2024 that it was prepared to list the species as “threatened” under the Endangered Species Act:10
Biologists calculated that the western population overwintering in California in January 2025 was less than 10,000 monarch butterflies. That was the second lowest total since counts started in 1997; in 2020, there were only 2,000 monarchs. In the 1980s the population was estimated at 4,000,000. The current number reflected a 95% decline in the western population, matched by an estimated 80% decline in the eastern population that overwintered in Mexico.11
The overwintering population of eastern migrating monarchs doubled in 2024-25 from 2.2 acres the previous winter to 4.42 acres. The key forested habitat in Mexico continued to shrink by roughly 10 acres per year, due primarily to illegal logging and drought.
population trends of monarch butterflies can be measured by the acreage where they overwinter in Mexico Source: World Wildlife Fund, astern monarch butterfly population nearly doubles in 2025 (March 6, 2025)
monarch caterpillar feeding on milkweed
Butterflies – Spring in Virginia (2019)
FAQ
What are the most common butterflies in Virginia?
Despite its small size, the eastern tailed-blue is one of the most commonly seen butterflies across Virginia. This butterfly is so frequently seen on butterfly surveys that participants simply shout out its initials “ETB” whenever one is encountered.
What is Virginia’s state butterfly?
Virginia’s state insect is the Eastern Tiger Swallowtail and one of our biggest butterflies.
What are the white butterflies in Virginia?
Summary. Pieris rapae, the small white, is a small- to medium-sized butterfly species of the whites-and-yellows family Pieridae. It is also known as the small cabbage white and in New Zealand, simply as white butterfly. The names “cabbage butterfly” and “cabbage white” can also refer to the large white.
What plants are native to Virginia for butterflies?
Some examples of Virginia native nectar plants with these types of flower clusters include asters (like joe pye weed), buttonbush, elderberry, some milkweeds, and many more.