On this page you will find the common butterflies you will see in the garden!
The American Lady is the same as the Painted Lady except for the number of Eyespots. The American Lady has 2 eyespots, while the Painted Lady has 4. The painted Lady also lacks the white spot that the American Lady has on their wing. Above is an image to help tell the two apart.
The American Lady’s wingspan is 1.75 to 2.75 inches, and the Painted Lady’s is 1.6 to 2.9 inches. They both eat Aster, Goldenrod, Milkweed, and Butterfly bush.
Eastern Tiger Swallowtail
The Eastern Tiger Swallowtail is a highly recognizable butterfly on the east side of the U.S.A, and are extremely common in Pennsylvania.
The male’s wingspan is 2-4 inches wide, while the female can grow much bigger, some reaching 5.5 inches, but both feed mostly off of Butterfly Bushes, Milkweed, and Dandelions.
You can tell them apart by their tails. The males are yellow with black/yellow tails, while the females can be yellow or black, with a iridescent blue on their tails.
Black Swallowtail
The Black Swallowtail is similar to the Eastern Tiger Swallowtail, in both frequency and shape.
Their wingspan is 3-4.5 inches, and they eat many things found in a garden, including carrots, celery, dill, parsley, and parsnip, as well as Queen Anne’s lace.
Like the Eastern Tiger Swallowtail, you can tell the two apart by their tails. The female has a larger and more prominent iridescent blue- a seeming calling card of the female Swallowtails. The female also has a duller yellow on the wings, while the males wings are bright.
Eastern Giant Swallowtail
These two butterflies don’t look like the same the same type of butterfly at first glance but they are! These are Eastern Giant Swallowtails!
The males are bigger than females. The male’s wingspan is 5.8 to 7.4 inches, and the females is 5.5 to 6.9 inches.
It is easy to tell the male and female apart, The male is much bigger than the female, and is black with yellow spots. The female is yellow and resembles an Eastern Tiger Swallowtail.
Spicebush Swallowtail
The Spicebush Swallowtail looks almost exactly like the Black Swallowtail, the yellow being replaced with orange being the only difference.
Their wingspan is 3.5-4.5 inches, and they eat milkweed, jewelweed, thistles, and more! They also can draw nutrients out of puddles and other water sources, as most butterflies do.
Instead of being told apart by the abundance of color, you can tell the male and female apart by if they have a swoosh or not. The male always has a swoosh with no orange dot, while the female has all orange dot. The male has a greenish coloration white the female has blue.
Banded Hairstreak
The bonded hairstreak is a very common butterfly, at least in PA. It can be seen almost anywhere in the state.
Their wingspan is 1 to 1.5 inches, and they eat really any flower they can find; they aren’t picky.
It is easy to discern the two sexes apart. The female has a iridescent blue patch bellow to gray, TV staticky patch.
Gray Hairstreak
The Gray Hairstreak is a common butterfly in the south-eastern part of the United States.
Their wingspan is 1 to 1.25 inches and they eat many types of clovers such as bush clover, rabbit-foot clover, white clover, and white sweet-clover.
The male Gray Hairstreak is gray with orange on the abdomen. The female is a grayish blue, and has the color throughout the abdomen.
Clouded Sulphur
The Clouded Sulphur butterfly is incredibly similar to the Orange Sulphur butterfly.
Their wingspan is 1.25 to 2 inches, and they eat clovers, dandelions, milkweeds, types of sunflowers, thistles.
The male butterfly has a solid black line around the wings, while the female has yellow spots in the black line.
Orange Sulphur
The Orange Sulphur are very similar to the Clouded Sulphur butterflies, but there are some differences.
Their wingspan 1.5 to 2 inches – making them slightly larger than the Clouded Sulphur Butterfly. They eat aster, dandelion, goldenrod, and milkweed.
The male, as the Clouded Sulphur, has a bold, solid black line around the wings, and the female has yellow/orange spots through it.
Common Checkered Skipper
The Common Checkered Skipper may look like a moth at first glance-as it is fuzzy- but it is actually a very common butterfly!
Their wingspan is 0.75-1 inch, making them small enough to fit in the palm of anyone’s hand! They eat clover, plants in the sunflower family, fleabane, and Aster.
It is fairly easy to tell these wonderful lil’ guys apart. The female is darker than the male. The male is light in coloration, and has silvery-blue hairs on its body.
Least Skipper
The Least Skipper is common in many places, but is often overlooked because of its size.
Their wingspan is .75-1 inch; the same as it’s fuzzy counterpart. They eat anything that is low to the ground like white clover, chickory, and pickerelweed.
The female has a darker coloration on the wings, and the male has lighter wings and antenna.
Peck’s Skipper
The Peck’s Skipper looks similar to the Least Skipper, but it is fuzzy like the Common Checkered Skipper. It is common.
They are bigger than the other Skippers; their wingspan is 1-1.25 inches. They eat almost the same things that the Common Checkered Skipper does. Plants in the sunflower family, clovers, and Aster.
The male is darker than the female and shows an orange blob on the top wing, as well as other orange or bright yellow markings. The female is dull and has no brightly colored markings.
Silver Spotted Skipper
The Silver Spotted Skipper looks similar to other Skippers, but bear most resemblance to the Great Spangled Fritillary. They can be hard to find in other places, but they are extremely common in PA.
Their wingspan is 1.75-2.25 inches, making them one of the largest skipper butterflies. They eat any flower that isn’t yellow, only drinking from one in dire situations.
The male (left) has a more pointed forewing and a large silver dusting, something that the female (right) lacks.
Zabulon Skipper
The Zabulon Skipper is common in PA, but at first glance, you might not think that these are the same type of butterfly.
Their wingspan is 1-1.5 inches, and they eat Thistle, blackberry, red clover, self-heal, and much, much more!
The male is mostly yellow with brown spots, and is lighter than the female. The female is a deep brown with cream spots, with white legs to match the spots.
Red Admiral
The Red Admiral has the same colors as the Monarchs, and are on average as common as them.
Their wingspan is 1.75 to 3 inches, and they-unlike many other butterflies-enjoy tree sap, rotting fruit, and animal droppings.
There is no difference between the male and female butterflies.
White Admiral
This is another common butterfly in the Admiral.
Their wingspan is 3 to 3.5 inches and they eat nectar, anything of decaying organic matter, and dung.
Like the Red Admiral, there is no difference between the male and female butterflies.
Monarch
The Monarch butterfly is the most recognizable butterfly, they are the most common butterfly depicted, and they are common in PA.
They are slightly bigger than the average Eastern Tiger Swallowtail; Their wingspan is 3.5-4 inches. They eat Milkweed, but some other select wild and domestic flowers.
While it is subtle, you can tell the male and female monarchs apart by looking at 2 factors – the width of the lines on the wings, and the lower wings. The male’s wing lines are thinner than the females, and the males also have two dots on their lower wings – a feature that the female butterflies lack.
Viceroy
This butterfly looks like a Monarch as a defense mechanism. The bright color tells predators “Hey! I wont taste good!” There is a difference between the two though. The monarch butterfly does not have the line that the Viceroy does. The Viceroy has a line going through both of the lower wings, while the monarch does not.
Their wingspan is 2.6 to 3 inches and they eat really anything they can get their tiny little legs on, like dung, fruit, flowers, and sap.
There is no difference between the male and female.
Aphrodite Fritillary
The Aphrodite Fritillary looks very similar to the Great Spangled Fritillary, but once you look closer you can see the differences.
Their wingspan is 2.5-3.5 inches, and they eat Clovers, Daisies, Dogbane, Thistles, and Milkweeds.
There are subtle differences between the male and female. The male is smaller than the female, and has less and smaller black markings than the female.
Meadow Fritillary
The Meadow Fritillary is fairly common, but is normally hidden because of camouflage. As most Fritillaries, they look like the others in the species-but once again you can look closer and see the differences.
Their wingspan is 1.25 to 1.87 inches, and they eat Black-eyed Susan’s, dandelions, Ox-eyed Daisies, and more.
The male has a prominent, broad yellow coloring at the bottom of the wings, while the female is just a solid orange.
Silver Bordered Fritillary
The Silver Bordered Fritillary is very similar to other butterflies, and shared many similarities, such as black lines and frequency.
Their wingspan is 1.5 to 2 inches, and they eat goldenrod, black-eyed susans, milkweed, and peas.
Unlike other butterflies, there is no difference between the male and female.
Variegated Fritillary
Once again, they look just like the other members of the species.
Their wingspan is 1.75 to 2.25 inches. They eat butterfly weed, common milkweeds, dogbane, red clover, and tickseed sunflower.
It is pretty easy to tell them apart. The male is more orange than the female’s dull colors. The female is also larger than the female.
Great Spangled Fritillary
The Great Spangled Fritillary is pretty common, we just don’t see them often because of their camouflage.
Their wingspan is 2-3 inches, and they enjoy eating Thistle and dogbane, but will eat from butterfly weed and similar plants.
The Female Great Spangled Fritillary is larger and darker than the Male.
Mourning Cloak
The Mourning cloak isn’t seen often, but it is so beautiful and very common in Pennsylvania. Their gold outline makes them difficult to miss, but they are normally seen in the sky, only flying low to warn off trespassers.
Their wingspan is 2.25-4 inches, and they will feast on pretty much anything that isn’t meat. It likes rotting fruit, doghouse, butterfly bush, Shasta daisy, and more!
Unlike many other butterflies, there is no visual difference between the two, but their behaviors are different. The females wait high up in the trees waiting for a mate, only coming down for food. The males on the other hand mark and defend territory, and are often the ones you will see flying around.
Pearl Crescent
The Pearl Crescent may be confused with a monarch at first glance, but if you look closer, their details are far more intricate.
Their wingspan is 1-1.5 inches- so small one can fit comfortably on your thumb! They enjoy eating Asters and Thistles.
Their are slight differences between the male and female butterflies, the male having a thinner body and darker colors. The female has brighter colors and a more varied color pallet, going from the orange from the male to yellow.
Common Buckeye
The Common Buckeye is quite an interesting sight. The eye looking marks on it’s back is to scare off potential predators, and if they do get to close, the bright orange markings mean “I don’t taste good”. You can see this on display on the monarch butterfly.
Their wingspan is 2-2.5 inches, and they eat nectar from Aster, Sunflower, knapweed, and more!
There is a subtle difference between the male and female, the female’s wings are more rounded than the male’s, as well as being slightly larger.
Question Mark
Yes, that really is the name of this common butterfly!
Their wingspan 2 to 2.5 inches, and they eat nectar from many flowers, dung, rotten fruit, and tree sap.
There is no difference between the male and female butterfly.
Eastern Comma
Another punctuation themed butterfly! These butterflies are fairly common, and look similar to the Question Mark.
The Eastern Comma’s wingspan is 1.8 to 2.5 inches, and they almost never eat flower nectar, instead feasting on decaying fruit and sap.
Hackberry Emperor
The Hackberry Emperor is found almost everywhere in the United States.
Their wingspan is 1.75 to 2.5 inches and they eat -like the Eastern Comma- barely any nectar, preferring hackberry sap, old fruit, and animal corpses!
The male is darker and slightly smaller than the female. The female is mostly white and light brown.
Red Spotted Purple
The Red Spotted Purple is found in most of Canada and the western half of the United Sates and Mexico.
Their wingspan is 3 to 4 inches and they eat sap, animal dung, and fruit, and rarely eat nectar.
There is no difference between the two sexes other than the female being slightly larger than the male.
Common Wood Nymph
The Common Wood Nymph is found in almost the entirety of the United States.
Their wingspan is 1.75 to 3 inches and eat fungi and rotten fruit, with the occasional nectar from flowers.
The male Common Wood Nymph is darker and smaller than the females. They both have eye marks going down their wings.
Little Wood Satyr
The Little Wood Satyr is common in many places.
Their wingspan is 1.25 to 1.75 inches, and they eat sap, fruit, and aphid honeydew.
While both have 2 eye spots on each pare of wings, the female has additional smaller eyespots on her hind wings.
American Snout
The American Snout is common in the south and western united states, and is also found in the upper part of Mexico.
Their wingspan is 1.25 to 2 inches and they eat Aster, Dogwood, and Goldenrod.
The male can be distinguished from the female by its smaller size, and the male only walks on its 2nd and 3rd legs.
Eastern Tail Blue
The Eastern Tail Blue is found commonly in the western half of the united states.
The wingspan of this butterfly is .75 to 1 inch, and they eat any flower that is low to the ground, as they fly low to the ground.
The male and female can be recognized by color-but not all the time. The female changes from blue to dark gray, the blue coming out in spring and the dark gray coming out after spring.
American Copper
The American Copper is found in the northwestern United States.
Their wingspan is 1 to 1.25 inches, and they eat Buttercup, Butterfly Weed, Goldenrod, White Clover, and Yarrow
There is no difference between the male and female American Copper.
Cabbage White
The Cabbage White is found in the Western United States.
Their wingspan is 1.3 to 1.9 inches, and they eat dandelion, red clover, and mint.
The difference between the male and female is that the male has one spot on it’s wings while the female has two.
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