The British butterfly ticklist

There are purportedly 59 extant species of butterfly in the UK. Those marked with an asterisk (twenty, as of April 2025) are ones I’ve yet to record here. There is at least one species that may be recolonising, Large Tortoiseshell. There are others that turn up sporadically, vagrants and migrants and don’t breed here.

  1. Adonis Blue
  2. Black Hairstreak
  3. Brimstone
  4. Brown Argus
  5. Brown Hairstreak*
  6. Chalk Hill Blue
  7. Chequered Skipper
  8. Clouded Yellow
  9. Comma
  10. Common Blue
  11. Cryptic Wood White*
  12. Dark Green Fritillary
  13. Dingy Skipper
  14. Duke of Burgundy*
  15. Essex Skipper
  16. Gatekeeper
  17. Glanville Fritillary*
  18. Grayling*
  19. Green Hairstreak
  20. Green-veined White
  21. Grizzled Skipper
  22. Heath Fritillary*
  23. High Brown Fritillary*
  24. Holly Blue
  25. Large Blue*
  26. Large Heath*
  27. Large Skipper
  28. Large White
  29. Lulworth Skipper*
  30. Marbled White
  31. Marsh Fritillary*
  32. Meadow Brown
  33. Mountain Ringlet*
  34. Northern Brown Argus*
  35. Orange-tip
  36. Painted Lady
  37. Peacock
  38. Pearl-boarded Fritillary*
  39. Purple Emperor
  40. Purple Hairstreak
  41. Red Admiral
  42. Ringlet
  43. Scotch Argus*
  44. Silver-spotted Skipper*
  45. Silver-studded Blue*
  46. Silver-washed Fritillary
  47. Small Blue
  48. Small Copper
  49. Small Heath
  50. Small Pearl-boarded Fritillary*
  51. Small Skipper
  52. Small Tortoiseshell
  53. Small White
  54. Speckled Wood
  55. Swallowtail*
  56. Wall
  57. White Admiral
  58. White-letter Hairstreak
  59. Wood White*