Lists of Lepidoptera by region

The following are the regional Lepidoptera lists by continent. Lepidoptera is the insect order consisting of both the butterflies and moths.

Lepidoptera are among the most successful groups of insects. They are found on all continents, except Antarctica. Lepidoptera inhabit all terrestrial habitats ranging from desert to rainforest, from lowland grasslands to montane plateaus but almost always associated with higher plants, especially angiosperms (flowering plants).^[1] Among the most northern dwelling species of butterflies and moths is the Arctic Apollo (Parnassius arcticus), which is found in the Arctic Circle in northeastern Yakutia, at an altitude of 1500 meters above sea level.^[2] In the Himalayas, various Apollo species such as Parnassius epaphus, have been recorded to occur up to an altitude of 6,000 meters above sea level.^[3]^: 221

Some lepidopteran species exhibit symbiotic, phoretic, or parasitic life-styles, inhabiting the bodies of organisms rather than the environment. Coprophagous pyralid moth species, called sloth moths, such as Bradipodicola hahneli and Cryptoses choloepi, are unusual in that they are exclusively found inhabiting the fur of sloths, mammals found in Central and South America.^[4]^[5] Two species of Tinea moths have been recorded as feeding on horny tissue and have been bred from the horns of cattle. The larva of Zenodochium coccivorella is an internal parasite of the coccid Kermes species. Many species have been recorded as breeding in natural materials or refuse such as owl pellets, bat caves, honey-combs or diseased fruit.^[5]

Of the approximately 174,250 lepidopteran species described until 2007, butterflies and skippers are estimated to comprise approximately 17,950, with moths making up the rest.^[6]^[7] The vast majority of Lepidoptera are to be found in the tropics, but substantial diversity exists on most continents. North America has over 700 species of butterflies and over 11,000 species of moths,^[8]^[9] while there are about 400 species of butterflies and 14,000 species of moths reported from Australia.^[10] The diversity of Lepidoptera in each faunal region has been estimated by John Heppner in 1991 based partly on actual counts from the literature, partly on the card indices in the Natural History Museum (London) and the National Museum of Natural History (Washington), and partly on estimates:^[11]^: 726

Diversity of Lepidoptera in each faunal region
	Palearctic	Nearctic	Neotropic	Afrotropic	Indo-Australian (comprising Indomalayan and Australasian realms)
Estimated number of species	22,465	11,532	44,791	20,491	47,286

Species by continent[]

Africa[]

Country or territory	Moths	Butterflies
Algeria		Butterflies
Angola	Moths	Butterflies
Benin	Moths	Butterflies
Botswana	Moths	Butterflies
Burkina Faso	Moths	Butterflies
Burundi	Moths	Butterflies
Cameroon	Moths	Butterflies
Canary Islands (Autonomous community of Spain)	Moths	Butterflies
Cape Verde	Moths	Butterflies
Central African Republic	Moths	Butterflies
Chad	Moths	Butterflies
Comoros	Moths	Butterflies
Congo, Democratic Republic of (Congo-Kinshasa)	Moths	Butterflies
Congo, Republic of (Congo-Brazzaville)	Moths	Butterflies
Djibouti	Moths	Butterflies
Egypt	Moths	Butterflies
Equatorial Guinea	Moths	Butterflies
Eritrea	Moths	Butterflies
Ethiopia	Moths	Butterflies
Gabon	Moths	Butterflies
Gambia	Moths	Butterflies
Ghana	Moths	Butterflies
Guinea	Moths	Butterflies
Guinea-Bissau	Moths	Butterflies
Ivory Coast (Côte d'Ivoire)	Moths	Butterflies
Kenya	Moths	Butterflies
Lesotho	Moths	Butterflies
Liberia	Moths	Butterflies
Libya
Madagascar	Moths	Butterflies
Malawi	Moths	Butterflies
Mali	Moths	Butterflies
Mauritania	Moths	Butterflies
Mauritius	Moths	Butterflies
Mayotte (Overseas territory of France)	Moths	Butterflies
Morocco		Butterflies
Mozambique	Moths	Butterflies
Namibia	Moths	Butterflies
Niger	Moths	Butterflies
Nigeria	Moths	Butterflies
Réunion (Overseas department of France)	Moths	Butterflies
Rwanda	Moths	Butterflies
Saint Helena, Ascension and Tristan da Cunha (Overseas territory of the United Kingdom)	Moths	Butterflies
Sao Tome and Principe	Moths	Butterflies
Selvagens Islands (Part of the parish of Sé of Portugal)	Moths	Butterflies
Senegal	Moths	Butterflies
Seychelles	Moths	Butterflies
Sierra Leone	Moths	Butterflies
Somalia	Moths	Butterflies
South Africa	Moths	Butterflies
Sudan	Moths	Butterflies
Swaziland	Moths	Butterflies
Tanzania	Moths	Butterflies
Togo	Moths	Butterflies
Tunisia		Butterflies
Uganda	Moths	Butterflies
Zambia	Moths	Butterflies
Zimbabwe	Moths	Butterflies

Asia[]

Country or territory	Moths	Butterflies
Abkhazia^{[Europe 1]}
Afghanistan
Akrotiri and Dhekelia^{[Europe 1]} (Overseas territory of the United Kingdom located on Cyprus)	Moths	Butterflies
Armenia^{[Europe 1]}		Butterflies
Azerbaijan^{[Europe 1]}		Butterflies
Bahrain	Moths	Butterflies
Bangladesh		Butterflies
Bhutan		Butterflies
British Indian Ocean Territory^{[Asia 1]} (Overseas territory of the United Kingdom)	Moths	Butterflies
Brunei
Cambodia
China	Moths	Butterflies
Christmas Island^{[Asia 2]} (External territory of Australia)	Moths	Butterflies
Cocos (Keeling) Islands^{[Asia 2]} (External territory of Australia)
Cyprus^{[Europe 1]}	Moths	Butterflies
Georgia^{[Europe 1]}
India	Moths	Butterflies Butterflies of the Western Ghats
Indonesia	Moths	Butterflies Butterflies of Sulawesi
Iran	Moths	Butterflies
Iraq
Israel	Moths	Butterflies
Japan	Moths	Butterflies
Jordan		Butterflies
Kazakhstan
Korea, Democratic People's Republic of (North Korea)		Butterflies
Korea, Republic of (South Korea)		Butterflies
Kuwait	Moths	Butterflies
Kyrgyzstan
Laos		Butterflies
Lebanon
Malaysia		Butterflies of Peninsular Malaysia
Maldives	Moths
Mongolia
Myanmar (Burma)
Nepal		Butterflies
Oman	Moths	Butterflies
Pakistan		Butterflies
Palestinian territories
Philippines		Butterflies
Qatar	Moths	Butterflies
Saudi Arabia	Moths	Butterflies
Singapore		Butterflies
Sri Lanka	Moths	Butterflies
Syria
Taiwan	Moths	Butterflies
Tajikistan
Thailand		Butterflies
Timor-Leste (East Timor)
Turkey^{[Europe 1]}	Moths	Butterflies
Turkmenistan
United Arab Emirates	Moths	Butterflies
Uzbekistan
Vietnam
Yemen	Moths	Butterflies

^ The British Indian Ocean Territory is sometimes considered as an African territory, since it was historically part of Mauritius.
^ ^a ^b Christmas Island and Cocos (Keeling) Islands are sometimes considered as Oceanian territories, since they are dependent territories of Australia.

Europe[]

Country or territory	Moths	Butterflies
Albania	Moths	Butterflies
Andorra	Moths	Butterflies
Austria	Moths	Butterflies
Azores	Moths	Butterflies
Belarus	Moths	Butterflies
Belgium	Moths	Butterflies
Bosnia and Herzegovina	Moths	Butterflies
Bulgaria	Moths	Butterflies
Croatia	Moths	Butterflies
Czech Republic	Moths	Butterflies
Denmark	Moths	Butterflies
Estonia	Moths	Butterflies
Faroe Islands	Moths	Butterflies
Finland	Moths	Butterflies
France	Moths	Butterflies
Germany	Moths	Butterflies
Greece	Moths	Butterflies
Hungary	Moths	Butterflies
Iceland	Moths	Butterflies
Ireland	Moths	Butterflies
Italy	Moths	Butterflies
Latvia	Moths	Butterflies
Liechtenstein	Moths	Butterflies
Lithuania	Moths	Butterflies
Luxembourg	Moths	Butterflies
Macedonia	Moths	Butterflies
Madeira	Moths	Butterflies
Malta	Moths	Butterflies
Moldova	Moths	Butterflies
Montenegro	Moths	Butterflies
Netherlands	Moths	Butterflies
Norway	Moths	Butterflies
Poland	Moths	Butterflies
Portugal		Butterflies
Romania	Moths	Butterflies
Russia^{[Europe 2]}	Moths	Butterflies Butterflies of Saint Petersburg and Leningrad Oblast
Serbia	Moths	Butterflies
Slovakia	Moths	Butterflies
Slovenia	Moths	Butterflies
Spain		Butterflies Butterflies of Minorca
Sweden	Moths	Butterflies
Switzerland	Moths	Butterflies
Ukraine	Moths	Butterflies
United Kingdom	Moths	Butterflies

^ ^a ^b ^c ^d ^e ^f ^g
The following countries and territories are also often considered as European:
- Armenia, Azerbaijan, Cyprus, Georgia, and Turkey, classified as Asian countries by the United Nations Statistics Division, are also often considered as European countries, since their territories are either partly in Europe or in the vicinity of Europe (for the geographical boundaries between Asia and Europe, see here), and they have close political and historical ties with Europe (e.g., they are members of the Council of Europe).
- Abkhazia, Nagorno-Karabakh, Northern Cyprus, and South Ossetia, all sovereign states lacking general international recognition, are also often considered as European countries.
- Akrotiri and Dhekelia is also often considered as a European territory.
^ Russia is generally considered as a European country more than an Asian country, even though most of its territory is in Asia, since most of its population and also its capital are in Europe, and it has close political and historical ties with Europe.

North America[]

Country or territory	Moths	Butterflies
Anguilla
Antigua and Barbuda
Aruba (Constituent country of the Kingdom of the Netherlands)	Moths	Butterflies
Bahamas
Barbados
Belize		Butterflies
Bermuda (Overseas territory of the United Kingdom)	Moths	Butterflies
Bonaire (Special municipality of the Netherlands)	Moths	Butterflies
British Virgin Islands (Overseas territory of the United Kingdom)
Canada	Moths	Butterflies
Cayman Islands (Overseas territory of the United Kingdom)		Butterflies
Clipperton Island (Overseas territory of France)
Costa Rica
Cuba	Moths	Butterflies
Curaçao (Constituent country of the Kingdom of the Netherlands)	Moths	Butterflies
Dominica		Butterflies
Dominican Republic	Moths	Butterflies
El Salvador
Greenland (Self-governing territory of Denmark)	Moths	Butterflies
Grenada
Guadeloupe (Overseas department of France)	Moths	Butterflies
Guatemala
Haiti	Moths	Butterflies
Honduras	Moths	Butterflies
Jamaica	Moths	Butterflies
Martinique (Overseas department of France)
Mexico		Butterflies
Montserrat (Overseas territory of the United Kingdom)
Navassa Island (Insular area of the United States of America)
Nicaragua
Panama
Puerto Rico (Insular area of the United States of America)	Moths	Butterflies
Saba (Special municipality of the Netherlands)	Moths	Butterflies
Saint Barthélemy (Overseas collectivity of France)
Saint Eustatius (Special municipality of the Netherlands)	Moths	Butterflies
Saint Kitts and Nevis
Saint Lucia
Saint Martin (Overseas collectivity of France)
Saint Pierre and Miquelon (Overseas collectivity of France)
Saint Vincent and the Grenadines
Sint Maarten (Constituent country of the Kingdom of the Netherlands)	Moths	Butterflies
Trinidad and Tobago		Butterflies Butterflies of Tobago
Turks and Caicos Islands (Overseas territory of the United Kingdom)
United States of America
United States Virgin Islands (Insular area of the United States of America)

South America[]

Country or territory	Moths	Butterflies
Argentina
Bolivia
Brazil
Chile	Moths	Butterflies
Colombia		Butterflies
Ecuador
Falkland Islands (Overseas territory of the United Kingdom)
French Guiana (Overseas department of France)		Butterflies
Guyana
Paraguay
Peru
Suriname
Uruguay
Venezuela

Oceania[]

Flag	Country or territory	Moths	Butterflies
	American Samoa (Insular area of the United States of America)		Butterflies
	Ashmore and Cartier Islands (External territory of Australia)		Butterflies
	Australia	Moths	Butterflies Butterflies of Tasmania Butterflies of Victoria Butterflies of Lord Howe Island
	Baker Island (Insular area of the United States of America)		Butterflies
	Cook Islands (Territory in free association with New Zealand)	Moths	Butterflies
	Coral Sea Islands (External territory of Australia)		Butterflies
	Easter Island (Special Territory of Chile)	Moths	Butterflies
	Fiji	Moths	Butterflies
	French Polynesia (Overseas collectivity of France)	Moths	Butterflies
	Guam (Insular area of the United States of America)		Butterflies
	Hawaii (State of the United States of America)	Moths	Butterflies
	Howland Island (Insular area of the United States of America)		Butterflies
	Jarvis Island (Insular area of the United States of America)		Butterflies
	Johnston Atoll (Insular area of the United States of America)		Butterflies
	Kingman Reef (Insular area of the United States of America)		Butterflies
	Kiribati		Butterflies
	Marshall Islands		Butterflies
	Micronesia		Butterflies
	Midway Atoll (Insular area of the United States of America)	Moths	Butterflies
	Nauru	Moths	Butterflies
or	New Caledonia (Sui generis collectivity or special collectivity of France)		Butterflies
	New Zealand	Moths	Butterflies
	Niue (Territory in free association with New Zealand)		Butterflies
	Norfolk Island (Self-governing territory of Australia)		Butterflies
	Northern Mariana Islands (Insular area of the United States of America)		Butterflies
	Palau		Butterflies
	Palmyra Atoll (Insular area of the United States of America)	Moths	Butterflies
	Papua New Guinea		Butterflies
	Pitcairn Islands (Overseas territory of the United Kingdom)	Moths	Butterflies
	Samoa		Butterflies
	Solomon Islands		Butterflies
	Tokelau (Dependent territory of New Zealand)		Butterflies
	Tonga		Butterflies
	Tuvalu		Butterflies
	Vanuatu		Butterflies
	Wake Island (Insular area of the United States of America)		Butterflies
	Wallis and Futuna (Overseas collectivity of France)	Moths	Butterflies

Antarctica[]

No Lepidoptera species are known from the continent of Antarctica. However, there are records from nearby islands.

Flag	Country or territory	Moths	Butterflies
	French Southern and Antarctic Lands (Overseas territory of France)	Moths

References[]

^ Gullan, P. J.; P. S. Cranston (September 13, 2004). "7". The insects: an outline of entomology (3 ed.). Wiley-Blackwell. pp. 198–199. ISBN 1-4051-1113-5.
^ Stumpe, Felix. "Parnassius arctica Eisner, 1968". Russian-Insects.com. Retrieved 9 November 2010.
^ Mani, M. S. (1968). Ecology and Biogeography of High Altitude Insects. Volume 4 of Series entomologica. Springer. p. 530. ISBN 978-90-6193-114-0. Retrieved 9 November 2010.
^ Sherman, Lee. jsessionid=B178230AA02D37492C9794327FB8DB71?sequence=1 ""An OSU scientist braves an uncharted rainforest in a search for rare and endangered species" in "Expedition to the Edge"". Terra, Spring 2008. Oregon State University. Retrieved 14 February 2011. {{cite web}}: Check |url= value (help)
^ ^a ^b Rau, P (1941). "Observations on certain lepidopterous and hymenopterous parasites of Polistes wasps". Annals of the Entomological Society of America. 34 (2): 355–366(12). doi:10.1093/aesa/34.2.355.
^ Mallet, Jim (12 June 2007). "Taxonomy of Lepidoptera: the scale of the problem". The Lepidoptera Taxome Project. University College, London. Retrieved 8 February 2011.
^ Mallet, Jim (12 June 2007). "Taxonomy of butterflies: the scale of the problem". The Lepidoptera Taxome Project. University College, London. Retrieved 8 February 2011.
^ Eaton, Eric R.; Kaufman, Kenn (2007). Kaufman field guide to insects of North America. Houghton Mifflin Harcourt. p. 391. ISBN 978-0-618-15310-7. Retrieved 12 February 2011.
^ Tuskes, Paul M.; Tuttle, James P.; Collins, Michael M. (1996). The wild silk moths of North America: a natural history of the Saturniidae of the United States and Canada. The Cornell series in arthropod biology (illustrated ed.). Cornell University Press. p. 250. ISBN 978-0-8014-3130-2. Retrieved 12 February 2011.
^ Green, Ken; Osborne, William S. (1994). Wildlife of the Australian snow-country: a comprehensive guide to alpine fauna (illustrated ed.). Reed. p. 200. ISBN 978-0-7301-0461-2.
^ Kristensen, Niels P.; Scoble, M. J. & Karsholt, Ole (2007). "Lepidoptera phylogeny and systematics: the state of inventorying moth and butterfly diversity" (PDF). In Z.-Q. Zhang & W. A. Shear (eds.). Linnaeus Tercentenary: Progress in Invertebrate Taxonomy (Zootaxa:1668). Magnolia Press. pp. 699–747. ISBN 978-0-12-690647-9. Retrieved March 2, 2010.