1. Monarch
   Red admiral
2. Eastern tiger swallowtail
   Pipevine swallowtail

While they are beautiful to look at, these butterflies have an essential job to do. Monarch butterflies are a consistent pollinator species. This means that when you see them on a flower, leave them alone (besides, they're toxic, so you wouldn't want to touch them anyway).

1. Painted lady
   Cabbage white
2. Old world swallowtail
   Mourning cloak

At first glance, you might misidentify these butterflies as moths; however, the cabbage white butterfly has telltale dark spots on its wings. They are usually found in New Zealand.

1. Painted lady
   Eastern tiger swallowtail
2. Old world swallowtail
   Gulf fritillary

An old world swallowtail butterfly has a wing span of about 3 inches. They can be found in the western United States from Alaska down to Mexico, with their biggest populations found in California and Arizona.

1. Monarch
   Red admiral
2. Pipevine swallowtail
   Painted lady

At first glance, you might mix up the painted lady with a monarch that's covered in dust. However, painted lady butterflies are not toxic like monarchs, and you can spot a painted lady by its smaller body size.

1. Eastern tiger swallowtail
   Cabbage white
2. Comma
   Western tiger swallowtail

While the eastern tiger swallowtail gets its nectar from nearly every plant in its area, it prefers to feast on cottonwood trees and various trees that flower. When it does go for a plant, you can usually find it around honeysuckle.

1. Gulf fritillary
   Western tiger swallowtail
2. Mourning cloak
   Painted lady

The mourning cloak butterfly is known as the Camberwell Beauty on the other side of the pond. They can be found across the more temperate portions of the Northern Hemisphere, including North America and Europe.

1. Mourning cloak
   Monarch
2. Painted lady
   Pipevine swallowtail

You can find a pipevine swallowtail in North America and Central America (mostly in the United States and Mexico). They seem to prefer warmer climates, but they can be found as far north as Minnesota.

1. Gulf fritillary
   Dragon's egg
2. Viceroy
   Black swallowtail

The gulf fritillary is usually found in the United States and Mexico. A good way to remember where you can find populations of these butterflies is that they surround the Gulf of Mexico.

1. Mourning cloak
   Viceroy
2. American painted lady
   Eastern tiger swallowtail

Both viceroy butterflies and monarch butterflies can be found in the United States. Although there are viceroy in the Western United States, they are mostly found in the east (the exact opposite of monarchs).

1. American painted lady
   Orange sulphur
2. Gulf fritillary
   Common buckeye

The average wingspan of the common buckeye butterfly is just under 3 inches. You can usually find these guys in fields and open areas around the United States and Mexico and feeding on snapdragons and milkweed.

1. Western tiger swallowtail
   Black swallowtail
2. Gulf fritillary
   Pipevine swallowtail

You can recognize a black swallowtail not just by its color and tail but also by the two little eyes at the bottom of both of its wings. These eyes help protect the black swallowtail from predators such as birds.

1. Orange sulphur
   Zebra swallowtail
2. American painted lady
   Viceroy

You may know this little guy as the alfalfa butterfly. They can be seen feasting on wildflowers throughout North America but mostly in the Eastern and Midwestern portions of the United States.

1. Cat eye
   Puppy love
2. Zebra swallowtail
   Dalmation

As you can see, the stripes on the zebra swallowtail are vertical (up and down) on its wings. There are other species of striped butterflies, but nearly all of them have horizontal stripes on their wings.

1. Cloudless sulphur
   Common buckeye
2. Blacktail swallow
   Orange-tip

Cloudless sulphur butterflies are masters of disguise. Their wings are a light greenish-yellow color when they're both opened and closed. This helps them blend in with the foliage they land on.

1. Question mark
   Comma
2. Semi-colon
   Period

They aren't called the comma because they pause after every clause. The ridges of their wings look like a bunch of commas placed together end to end. Why this type wasn't called the cheetah butterfly, we will never know.

1. Orange sulphur
   Zebra swallowtail
2. Small copper
   Comma

You can spot a small copper butterfly by its sizeable dark spot over its bottom wings. They also have spots on their wings, unlike other copper butterflies which simply have deep orange wings with a black border.

1. Giant swallowtail
   Mini swallowtail
2. Eastern tailed-blue
   Cloudless sulphur

Giant swallowtail butterflies are generally found in warm, wet areas. They get their nectar from lantana and sunflowers, but their caterpillars can be found in prickly ash and rue trees.

1. Yellow hopper
   Orange bushbaby
2. Fiery skipper
   Baby orange

Fiery skippers look very much like grasshoppers if you aren't paying attention. However, the big difference is that fiery skippers always have their wings out. These interesting butterflies are generally found in the Southern United States and Mexico.

1. Orange-tip
   Dalmation
2. Great spangled fritillary
   Monarch

If you think the Northern United States and Canada don't have beautiful butterflies, this gorgeous orange fellow should prove you wrong. They generally feast on black-eyed Susans and milkweed.

1. Great spangled fritillary
   Eastern tailed-blue
2. Fiery skipper
   Menelaus blue morpho

You can generally find this papery butterfly in the wetter regions of the United States. They often feast on zinnia and milkweed, but their caterpillars can be found on white clover and milk vetch.

1. Eastern tailed-blue
   Silver-spotted skipper
2. Great spangled fritillary
   Common wood-nymph

The silver-spotted skipper is a duller-looking butterfly and is often mistaken for a moth-butterfly hybrid. One interesting fact about them is that they don't really like yellow flowers.

1. Common checkered-skipper
   Silver-spotted skipper
2. Long-tailed skipper
   Fiery skipper

Another skipper butterfly, the common checkered-skipper, is rather small, only measuring about 1.5 inches in total wingspan. When this butterfly is on the ground, it looks like someone splattered white paint onto mud.

1. Clouded yellow
   Silvery blue
2. Spicebush swallowtail
   Silver-spotted skipper

The clouded yellow butterfly looks green when its wings are folded. You can generally find them in fields of pea plants, sucking the nectar out of the flowers. When it rests, its wings are closed, making it look like a leaf.

1. Silvery blue
   Clouded yellow
2. Pear crescent
   Zebra longwing butterfly

Carl Linnaeus made the first documentation of the zebra longwing butterfly in 1767. This species is the official state butterfly of Florida and can be found throughout Central America as well.

1. Long-tailed skipper
   Old manner
2. Menelaus blue morpho
   Pearl crescent

The long-tailed skipper is so named for the fact that its wings have appeared to have sprouted two tails at the bottoms. When these insects are caterpillars, they prefer to eat the plants made by various beans and nuts.

1. American snout
   Monarch
2. Long-tailed skipper
   Zebra longwing butterfly

The American snout has a unique wing shape that includes long, thin upper wings and short, rounded lower wings that hug close to its body. Additionally, its markings mimic that of a monarch.

1. Small heath
   Long-tailed skipper
2. American snout
   Large heath

Also known as the common ringlet, the large heath prefers grassy habitats. They are mostly found in the Northern and Western parts of the United States, but they are also seen sporadically throughout Europe.

1. Swallow follow
   Swallowtail bright
2. Green-veined white
   American snout

The green-veined white is usually found in ditches, river banks and damp areas of England, Ireland and Scotland. They are usually seen in the summertime (from April to August) or in the dampest months of the year.

1. Pearl crescent
   Limenitis arthemis
2. Juniper hairstreak
   American snout

Limenitis arthemis is also known as the red-spotted purple. Typically found in Massachusetts, these beautiful blues like to lay their eggs on cherry trees and willow trees, but have been known to lay on power lines as well.

1. Long-tailed skipper
   Monarch
2. Postman
   Large while

Postman butterflies are generally found in warmer climates in Central America, although they can be found in Mexico as well. They were first recorded by Car Linnaeus (the king of butterfly discovery) in 1758.

1. Barric yellow
   Checkered white
2. Dalmation
   Spotted sight

Checkered white butterflies can be found across North America, but they are often found in the American Midwest. These butterflies can be found wherever there are hibiscus and passion flowers.

1. Holly blue
   Zebra longwing butterfly
2. American snout
   Green-veined white

These seemingly impossible blue butterflies have a pretty plain caterpillar (green with dull red stripes), and their wingspans are even less impressive, coming in at about 1.3 inches.

1. Small copper
   Long-tailed skipper
2. American snout
   Queen Alexandra's birdwing

The wingspan on this beautiful creature can reach up to 12 inches. That's the size of your ruler at home. It's among the largest insects in the world and can be found in the rain forests. Oh, and did we mention it's poisonous?

1. Eastern tailed-blue
   Clouded sulphur
2. Queen
   Bean

The queen butterfly is a deep orange color, but it sometimes turns red. The caterpillars for these butterflies is very close to the caterpillar of the monarch, except it has an extra set of tentacles.

1. Silvery blue
   Spicebush swallowtail
2. Clouded yellow
   Juniper hairstreak

The silvery blue is also found in North America. When its wings are folded, it has a silvery look. When they are open, males have a blue color, and females have a gray color that looks almost silver.

1. Clouded sulphur
   Common wood-nymph
2. Queen
   Spicebush swallowtail

You may also recognize the common wood-nymph as the grayling or the goggle eye butterfly. It's usually found in North America from Southern Florida to Maine. They typically feed on shrubbery rather than flowers.

1. Common brown
   Ulysses butterfly
2. Australian painted lady
   Common emigrant

Granted, the Ulysses butterfly is beautiful, but most don't know that it is mostly found in Indonesia, Australia and Papua New Guinea. Their caterpillars are a pale yellow-green color that blends in perfectly with leaves.

1. Blue moon
   Pink lady
2. Meadow argus
   Chardonnay

The blue moon butterfly is mostly found in New Zealand, but it can also be found as far as Madagascar and India, and they feed on Malva and Urtica dioica. Their colors range from black to a dark brown with blue spots.

1. Eurema smilax
   Common bottletooth
2. Eurema brigitta
   Common green birdwing

Related to the Queen Alexandria birdwing butterfly (the largest butterfly in the world), the wingspan of these majestic creatures is around 8 inches, which is still pretty significant for a butterfly.

1. Dainty swallowtail
   Monarch
2. Zizina labradus
   Meadow argus

The dainty swallowtail is best known for its larval stage. The caterpillar for this species of butterfly has rows of spikes coming out of its back, as well as two horns on its head.