Denver-Boulder Metro Area: Butterflies and Moths
This guide contains butterflies and moths that can be found in the Denver-Boulder Metro Area, including Adams, Arapahoe, Boulder, Broomfield, Denver, Douglas, and Jefferson Counties.
Colorado Hairstreak
The Colorado Hairstreak Butterfly (Hypaurotis crysalus) is a montane butterfly native to oak scrubland in the southwestern United States and northern Mexico. It was designated the state insect of Colorado in 1996.
Gray Hairstreak
The Gray Hairstreak (Strymon melinus), is one of the most common hairstreaks in North America, ranging over nearly the entire continent. It occurs also throughout Central America and in northern South America.
Acadian Hairstreak
The Acadian Hairstreak (Satyrium acadica) is a butterfly of the Lycaenidae family. It is found from British Columbia east to Nova Scotia and south to Idaho, Colorado, the northern Midwest, Maryland, and New Jersey.
Behr's Hairstreak
The Behr's Hairstreak (Satyrium behrii) is a butterfly of the Lycaenidae family. It is found in western North America from western Texas north and west through New Mexico, Arizona and southern California to British Columbia.
California Hairstreak
The California Hairstreak (Satyrium californica) is a butterfly of the Lycaenidae family. It is found from British Columbia south to southern California and east to Colorado.
Striped Hairstreak
The Striped Hairstreak (Satyrium liparops) is a butterfly of the Lycaenidae family. It is found in North America, from the Rocky Mountains south from southern Canada to Colorado, east to Maine and south to Florida.
Hedgerow Hairstreak
The Hedgerow Hairstreak (Satyrium saepium) is a butterfly of the Lycaenidae family. It is found in western North America, from British Columbia south through California into Baja California and east through northern Arizona to northern New Mexico, Colorado and Montana.
Coral Hairstreak
The Coral Hairstreak (Satyrium titus) is a North American butterfly in the family Lycaenidae.
Western Green Hairstreak
The Western Green Hairstreak or Immaculate Green Hairstreak (Callophrys affinis) is butterfly of the Lycaenidae family. It is found in western Canada and western USA.
Brown Elfin
The Brown Elfin (Callophrys augustinus) is butterfly of the Lycaenidae family. It is found in from Newfoundland north and west through the northern United States and the prairie provinces to Alaska. To the south it ranges in Appalachian Mountains to northern Georgia and northern Alabama, further south through the western mountains to northern Baja California. Subspecies ...more ↓
Western Pine Elfin
The Western Pine Elfin (Callophrys eryphron) is a North American butterfly that ranges from British Columbia east to Maine and south to southern California, Arizona, and New Mexico. Males are brown and females are orange-brown, with both having bold patterned hind wings. The top of the wings have dark bars with a lighter chevron shaped margin. The body is 19–32 mm in ...more ↓
Juniper Hairstreak
The Juniper Hairstreak (Callophrys gryneus) is a butterfly native to North America. It belongs in the family Lycaenidae.
Moss's Elfin
The Moss's Elfin (also Stonecrop Elfin and Schryver's Elfin) (Callophrys mossii) is a butterfly native to North America that belongs in the family Lycaenidae. It is found from British Columbia south to southern California and east to Wyoming and Colorado in isolated populations. The habitat consists of rocky outcrops, woody canyons and cliffs.
Hoary Elfin
The Hoary Elfin (Callophrys polios) is butterfly of the Lycaenidae family. It has a very local distribution from Maine south to New Jersey and in the Appalachian Mountains to Virginia, west across the Great Lakes states and the southern prairie provinces and north to Alaska. Along the Pacific Coast it is found to northern California and in the Rocky Mountains south to northern ...more ↓
Sheridan's Hairstreak
Callophrys sheridanii, common name Sheridan's Hairstreak and Sheridan's Green Hairstreak, is a butterfly in the Lycaenidae family. It is found along the south coast of British Columbia and parts of Nevada, Arizona, Saskatchewan, North Dakota, and New Mexico. In 2009, this species was adopted as the U.S. state butterfly for Wyoming.
Thicket Hairstreak
The Thicket Hairstreak (Callophrys spinetorum) is a butterfly of the Lycaenidae family. It was described by Hewitson in 1867. It is found from British Columbia through the Rocky Mountains to New Mexico and Mexico and through California to Baja California. The habitat consists of pinyon-juniper forests, mixed woodlands, and coniferous forests.
Tailed Copper
The Tailed Copper (Lycaena arota) is a butterfly of the Lycaenidae family. It is found from New Mexico north and west to Oregon, south to southern California and Baja California.
Gray Copper
The Grey Copper or Great Copper (Lycaena dione) is a butterfly of the Lycaenidae family. It is found from the southern Prairie Provinces of Canada and western Ontario south to Texas and east to Illinois and Missouri. There is a disjunct population in southern British Columbia.
Edith's Copper
Lycaena editha, known generally as the Edith's copper or great gray copper, is a species of copper in the family of butterflies known as Lycaenidae. It is found in North America.
Blue Copper
The Blue Copper (Lycaena heteronea) is a butterfly of the Lycaenidae family. It is found in the western Canada and USA.
Ruddy Copper
The Ruddy Copper (Lycaena rubidus) is a butterfly of the Lycaenidae family. It is found in the western mountains of North America.
Dorcas Copper
Lycaena dorcas is a species of butterfly in the family Lycaenidae, the gossamer-winged butterflies. Its common names include dorcas copper and cinquefoil copper. It is native to North America. The species L. dospassosi was once included in L. dorcas.
Purplish Copper
The Purplish Copper (Lycaena helloides) is a butterfly of the Lycaenidae family. It is found from Great Lakes area to British Columbia, south to Baja California.
Bronze Copper
Lycaena hyllus, the bronze copper, is a butterfly of the lycaenids family found in North America.
Lustrous Copper
The Lustrous Copper (Lycaena cuprea) is a butterfly of the Lycaenidae family. It is found in the western mountains of North America.
Spring Azure
The Spring Azure (Celastrina ladon) is a butterfly of the Lycaenidae family. It is found in North America from Alaska and Canada south of the tundra, through most of the United States except the Texas coast, southern plain and peninsula Florida; south in the mountains to Colombia.
Lucia Azure
Celastrina lucia, the lucia azure, northern azure, eastern spring azure or northern spring azure, is a species of butterfly of the Lycaenidae family. It is found eastern North America, ranging from the Maritimes south through the Appalachian Mountains to West Virginia.
Silvery Blue
The Silvery Blue (Glaucopsyche lygdamus) is a small butterfly native to North America. Upperside is a light blue in males, a dull grayish blue in females. Underside is gray with single row of round spots of differing sizes depending upon region.
Arrowhead Blue
The Arrowhead Blue (Glaucopsyche piasus) is a western North American butterfly of the family Lycaenidae. It is a locally common butterfly that favors prairie, open woodland, and woodland edges and trails.
Ancilla Blue
The Rocky Mountain Dotted Blue (Euphilotes ancilla) is a species of butterfly of the Lycaenidae family. It is found from Washington south to California and southern Alberta and Saskatchewan south through rockies and high plains to Wyoming, Colorado, Utah, and northwestern New Mexico
Rita's Blue
The Rita Blue or Desert Buckwheat Blue (Euphilotes rita) is a species of butterfly of the Lycaenidae family. It is found in Wyoming, Colorado, Arizona, New Mexico and northern Mexico.
Western Pygmy-Blue
The Western Pygmy Blue (Brephidium exilis or Brephidium exile) is one of the smallest butterflies in the world and is the smallest in North America. It has reached Hawaii. It has a wingspread of about half an inch.
Marine Blue
The Marine Blue or Striped Blue (Leptotes marina) is a butterfly of the Lycaenidae family. It is found in from South America through Mexico up to Southern Texas, Arizona and California.
Western Tailed-Blue
The Western Tailed-blue (Cupido amyntula) is a member of the Lycaenidae family and is seen across western North America as far norther as Alaska. The upperside of the male butterfly is blue while the female has a darker brown band on the outer side of the wing. The underside is riddle with black spots, with a wingspan of 2.2 to 2.9 cm. The larvae feed on Thermopsis, ...more ↓
Eastern Tailed-Blue
The Eastern Tailed-blue or Eastern Tailed Blue (Cupido comyntas), also known as Everes comyntas, is a common butterfly of eastern North America. Males are generally blue on the upperside of their wings while females are lighter blue to brown or charcoal in coloring, but there are also varieties of purple and pink found in both sexes. The underside coloration ranges ...more ↓
Reakirt's Blue
The Reakirt's Blue (Hemiargus isola) is a butterfly of the Lycaenidae family. It is found in Central America and the extreme southern U.S., isola migrates regularly throughout most of the U.S. almost to the Canadian border, and very rarely into the southern Prairies.
Arctic Blue
The Arctic Blue or Glandon Blue (Agriades glandon) is a butterfly of the Lycaenidae family. In North America it is found from Alaska east to Newfoundland, south through the mountains to Washington, northern Arizona, and northern New Mexico. In Europe, it is found in mountainous areas like the Pyrenees and Alps, as well as the far north. It is also found in parts of ...more ↓
Boisduval's Blue
Aricia icarioides, or Boisduval's blue, is a butterfly of the Lycaenidae family found in North America.
Lupine Blue
Aricia lupini, the lupine blue, is a butterfly of the Lycaenidae family. It is found from south-western Canada, south through much of mountainous and intermountain western United States and high plains to northern Mexico.
Shasta Blue
Plebejus shasta, the Shasta blue, is a butterfly of the Lycaenidae family. It is found from the northwestern United States to southern Saskatchewan and Alberta.
Melissa Blue
The Melissa Blue (Lycaeides melissa) is a butterfly of the Lycaenidae family. It is found in Western North America, from Canada to Mexico. The Karner Blue (Lycaeides melissa samuelis) is a subspecies of the Melissa Blue, and was described by the novelist/lepidopterist Vladimir Nabokov. It is sometimes placed in the genus Plebejus.
