In the fall of 2019 we got to fly to Hong Kong and spend about a month with our daughter and her husband on Lamma Island. It is a beautiful island that is part of Hong Kong and is often used by residents of Hong Kong as a get away from big city life and to see nature. Our daughter had our first grandchild shortly before we arrived. They rented a house complete with a somewhat unkempt outside area with lots of flowers. Their house is pictured above in the header and is surrounded with lots of vegetation. A good portion of the butterflies I saw and photographed were in their garden. It seems like much of the pollination of flowers in Hong Kong is done by butterflies. I would say that what I saw there was the reverse of here in number of bees and wasps on flowers to butterflies on flowers.

It struck me recently of how similar but different many of the ones I photographed there are to ones here. I hope to do a side by side comparison from there and here from the same families of butterflies. By the way the ones I list as Minnesota butterflies are not just from Minnesota but are found here and across much of the USA. This is also true of Hong Kong butterflies. I assume they are found all across the Far East and not just Hong Kong. All pictures are mine so they are limited and not by any means a complete picture all butterflies in Minnesota or Hong Kong. They are most of the ones I have seen and been able to photograph so far. There are many more moths that I have photos of than what I include at the end. The ones I include are ones that amaze me most.

Swallowtail Butterflies

I have no more Minnesota swallowtail pictures but several more Hong Kong swallowtails.

Milkweed Butterflies

Admirals and Allies (Subfamily Limenitidinai)

Ladies and Related Admirals (Genus Vanessa)

Fritillaries and Longwings

Buckeyes, Commodores and Allies (Tribe Junonlini)

Emperors (Subfamily Apaturinae)

Alpines, Arctics, Nymphs and Satyrs (Browns- Tribe Satyrini)

Whites (Subfamily Pterinae)

Yellows and Sulphurs (Subfamily Coliadinae)

Other Butterflies not classified by family yet

Hairstreaks (Subfamily Theclinae)

Blues (Subfamily Polyommatinae) - very small

Skippers (Family Hesperlidae)