Papilionidae - The Swallowtails
Short-tailed Swallowtail
Black Swallowtail
Canadian Tiger Swallowtail
Giant Swallowtail
Pieridae - The Whites and Sulphurs
Mustard White
Cabbage White
Clouded Sulphur
Orange Sulphur
Pink-edged Sulphur
Little Yellow
Lycaenidae - The Gossamer-wings
Harvester
American Copper
Bronze Copper
Bog Copper
Dorcas Copper
Maritime Copper
Brown Elfin
Hoary Elfin
Henry's Elfin
Eastern Pine Elfin
Bog Elfin
Acadian Hairstreak
Banded Hairstreak
Striped Hairstreak
Gray Hairstreak
Early Hairstreak
Eastern Tailed-Blue
Northern Spring Azure
Silvery Blue
Northern Blue
Greenish Blue
Nymphalidae - The Brushfoots
American Snout
Monarch
Variegated Fritillary
Great Spangled Fritillary
Aphrodite Fritillary
Atlantis Fritillary
Silver-bordered Fritillary
Arctic Fritillary
White Admiral
Viceroy
Silvery Checkerspot
Harris' Checkerspot
Northern Crescent
Baltimore Checkerspot
Common Buckeye
Question-Mark
Eastern Comma
Satyr Comma
Green Comma
Hoary Comma
Gray Comma
Milbert's Tortoiseshell
Compton Tortoiseshell
Mourning Cloak
Red Admiral
Painted Lady
American Lady
European Peacock
Northern Pearly-Eye
Eyed Brown
Common Ringlet
Little Wood-Satyr
Balder's Arctic
Common Wood-Nymph
Some seventy-three species of butterflies have been recorded regularly here, along with half a dozen others which were far away from their normal range. The last major work on the status of the Lepidoptera in general in Nova Scotia (Ferguson, 1955) was published over 60 years ago. With the advent of the Maritimes Butterfly Atlas in 2010, we are now accumulating a much better picture of the status and distribution of butterflies in Nova Scotia (and the other Maritime Provinces.)
Each species has a page devoted to it. You can locate a species of interest through the pictorial family lists, above, or by clicking on the species name to the left.
A word of clarification - the intent of this web site is to present information about the status of each species in Nova Scotia. With this in mind, we have completely ignored the subject of identification, except to point out similar species which are also found in the province. Any field guide, such as the one by Opler, would be a good starting place to learn how to identify our butterflies.