Butterflies and Moths of North America

collecting and sharing data about Lepidoptera

Regional Butterfly and Moth Information

Top 20 Commonly Reported Butterflies and Moths of Iowa

These are the most commonly reported butterflies and moths in Iowa. If you do not see the species you found, look at all photographs submitted in Iowa, or visit the Iowa page to see recently submitted sightings.


Pearl Crescent
Phyciodes tharos

Eastern Tiger Swallowtail
Papilio glaucus

Orange Sulphur
Colias eurytheme

Clouded Sulphur
Colias philodice

Red Admiral
Vanessa atalanta

Eastern Tailed-Blue
Cupido comyntas

Black Swallowtail
Papilio polyxenes

Cabbage White
Pieris rapae

Great Spangled Fritillary
Speyeria cybele

Common Wood-Nymph
Cercyonis pegala

Red-spotted Purple or White Admiral
Limenitis arthemis

Common Sootywing
Pholisora catullus

Painted Lady
Vanessa cardui

Tawny-edged Skipper
Polites themistocles

Silver-spotted Skipper
Epargyreus clarus

'Astyanax' Red-spotted Purple
Limenitis arthemis astyanax

Little Wood-Satyr
Megisto cymela

Least Skipper
Ancyloxypha numitor

We can help identify your butterfly or moth!

If you know the date and location where the photograph was taken, we can help. It's simple!

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  Submit a Sighting

A coordinator will review your submission, and you will get an email with the identification.

We will store your submitted data. Your submission will contribute to our species profiles, checklists, and database. You can track all your submissions and create a personal species list.


Identifying Caterpillars

Do you have a photograph of a caterpillar? If so, when you submit your photograph, please provide us with host plant information if possible. Consider raising it to the adult stage before submitting photographs.

Surprisingly, most of the larval stages of butterflies and moths are simply unknown, and caterpillar photographs can be very difficult to identify. It may take some time for a coordinator to identify your caterpillar.

Browse all caterpillar images

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