FINDING AND LEARNING: CAROLINA  UPSTATE BUTTERFLIES 

STARTING OUT TO LEARN ABOUT AREA BUTTERFLIES?  IT'S EASY! LEARNING THOSE 15 BUTTERFLIES, AND YOU'RE 90% OF THE WAY TO KNOWING THE BUTTERFLIES YOU'LL ENCOUTER AT GARDENS AND WILDFLOWERS IN OUR AREA. FIRST KNOWING THEM, MAKES FINDING THE LESS COMMON 85 SPECIAES A LOT EASIER.  HERE ARE THE NAMES OF THOSE 15 AGAIN-

EASTERN TIGER SWALLOWTAIL, SPICEBUSH SWALLOWTAIL, CABBAGE WHITE, SLEEPY ORANGE, CLOUDLESS SULPHUR, SUMMER AZURE, EASTERN-TAILED BLUE, VARIEGATED FRITILLARY, PEARL CRESCENT, AMERICAN LADY, COMMON BUCKEYE, MONARCH, SILVER-SPOTTED SKIPPER, FIERY SKIPPER, SACHEM.  CAN YOU PICTURE IN YOUR MIND EACH OF THE ABOVE?  GO BACK AND REVIEW THOSE 15 ANY TIME.

It's all about pattern recognition,       and here's one of my favorite cartoons based on the concept of pattern recognition-  

This guide for beginner and intermediate "butterfliers", follows the advice that I learned, and then taught, as a  leader of nature field trips. The photographs and descriptions include almost all the butterfly species you will encounter in and near Upstate South Carolina, including nearby parts of North Carolina and Georgia. We have about 100 species of the 700 species species you'll find in the lower 48 states.  After over 15 years of butterflying and butterfly photography, I've assembled this guide to help others enjoy finding, identifying, and photographing butterflies. My original "Google sites" field guide projects became "unsupported" by Google and then deleted when Google switched to their "new Sites" software.  My new Google sites are still under construction.  

What follows are the butterfly photographs from the piedmont, foothills, and southern Appalachian mountains of the counties shown below plus nearby areas in North Carolina. In South Carolina, our southern Appalachians top out at 3550' on Sassafras Mountain in Pickens County.  Peaks over 5000' occur in NC not far from the SC border. Some river bottoms in the southern parts of the SC Upstate are only 400' above sea level.  A few photographs were taken outside the target Upstate region, as indicated below , and include some coastal and high mountain species unlikely to be found here in Upstate SC, but not far away if you travel.

Nearby North Carolina counties-

Coming soon- with just a click, additional information will pop up about butterfly classification and biology, binocular and camera technique to see and photograph butterflies,  field guides, and garden plants to attract butterflies.  Let's try this.  Click on the upside down V to the right-  

You did it!  Now click on that now upright v and the additional text disappears.

WHAT ARE BUTTERFLIES?

Butterflies are insects (taxonomic class insecta) . Butterflies and their evolutionary cousins, moths, constitute the taxonomic Lepidoptera. Butterflies are further divided into closely related species called families.  Butterflies are active during daylight and most moths at night. Another important difference is their antennas which are  sensory organs used to detect the scent of flowers or a mate. Butterflies have a knob or club at the end of their antennas which moths don't have.

 ORGANIZATION  The photographs and brief descriptions that follow are organized by butterfly families, which are groups of closely related species.  Most of our Upstate SC butterflies are the same as those found in North Carolina. There are several additional online North Carolina field guides which are excellent resources including   Jeff's North Carolina Butterfly Page and the comprehensive "Butterfly Atlas for North Carolina".   I also maintain a web site for butterflies of the the Yucatan Peninsula, Mexico, which can be found here-  Quintana Roo Butterflies  and a more regional guide to the butterflies of Cozumel.  

PHOTOGRAPHIC BUTTERFLY CHECK LIST

This guide is intended to introduce you to, and help you find and identify, butterflies of Upstate South Carolina and surrounding areas, perhaps as a study guide before and after you start looking for these fascinating insects. The nomenclature and the reference page numbers you find for each species are from Butterflies through Binoculars, The East  by Jeffrey Glassberg, a recommended field guide.   You might want to carry it "in the field".  Alternately, photograph the butterflies you see, and use this guide and the Glassberg  guide for reference.  

The photographs here of almost almost 100 species have been taken by me,  Douglass Allen, and are of free flying butterflies from the Upstate Carolina and nearby regions. I will soon be adding a way to more easily search for an individual species.  I welcome your contributions of photographs, information, or comments.

LET'S GET STARTED!  Here is a quick starter guide to the different butterfly families and some of our most common species-

 Swallowtails- large butterflies. Many are dark colored. Like members of most other butterfly families, they are often seen nectaring on garden flowers or at wild flowers. Here is one example from the Swallowtail family, our SC state Tiger Swallowtail butterfly. Some female Tigers and several other Swallowtails are dark -

WHITES AND YELLOWS include small, medium , and large butterflies.  Most are found in fields like Alfalfa fields, or any weedy fields, but they also visit gardens. The medium size Orange Sulphur is shown below-

Another common Yellow is the Cloudless Sulfur-

HAIRSTREAKS AND BLUES  are mostly small butterflies. Most nectar at flowers. Below are the Grey Hairstreak not common, but the most common Hairstreak, and the common very small Eastern-tailed Blue , found in yards and at flowers-

FRITILLARIES AND ANGELWINGS are small to large, colorful butterflies, members of a large family called Brush-foots. Fritillaries nectar at flowers, but Angelwings usually do not.   Angelwings, with their distinctive shapes, are often found  feeding on tree sap or on the ground.  Below are the fairly common  Great-spangled Fritillary and the Question Mark, an angelwing- 

ADMIRALS, SATYRS, AND MONARCHS are another part of a family called Brush-foots.  Satyrs are mostly small to medium size, spotted butterflies that occur mainly in and near woodland habitats. They are seldom at flowers. The well known Monarch is a large butterfly that does nectar at flowers. Below is the common small Carolina Satyr, the uncommon medium sized Northern Pearly Eye, and the large Monarch- 


Spread-winged Skippers, Cloudy-wings, and Duskywings are small to medium size brownish or dusky colored butterflies with distinctive markings.  They nectar at flowers. Spread-winged refers to their usually landing with their wings open like the second one below.  The closed-wing Silver-spotted Skipper and Horace's Duskywing are below-

GRASS SKIPPERS include many small yellow, orange, grey, and brown butterflies with large bodies compared to their wings, more like moths.  Below is our most common Grass Skipper, the most likely Grass Skipper you are likely to see in our area. It and other Grass Skippers nectar at flowers.  Like many other species of butterflies, most are sexually dimorphic, meaning that males and females are dissimilar.  Below is the very common male Fiery Skipper, the ventral (below) and dorsal (above) view- 

WHEN YOU'RE READY TO LEARN MORE-

CLICK FAMILY NAMES BELOW TO SEE UPSTATE SC AND NEARBY BUTTERFLY SPECIES.  RETURN TO THIS PAGE BY CLICKING SOUTH CAROLINA BUTTERFLIES, UPSTATE SOUTH CAROLINA AT TOP OF PAGE, AND SELECT A DIFFERENT GROUPING.

SWALLOWTAILS 

WHITES AND YELLOWS

HAIRSTREAKS AND BLUES

FRITILLARIES AND ANGELWINGS

ADMIRALS,  SATYRS, AND MONARCHS

SPREADWING SKIPPERS

GRASS SKIPPERS 

Hola señor y señora-

Click here for Doug's Butterflies of Yucatan Peninsula under construction

More bird-brained than butterfly obsessed- then try here