Discover 11 Butterflies That Live in Alabama

Alabama is home to a variety of beautiful fauna, including butterflies. These fluttery critters can easily brighten your day, are often symbols of loved ones, and serve as an idyllic example of metamorphosis.

Whether you call The Heart of Dixie home or you just love butterflies as much as we do, you’re in the right place. We’ve found some of the most interesting, common, and gorgeous butterflies in the state!

Painted Lady

Long-distance migrants like the painted lady are responsible for the most impressive butterfly migrations in Britain and Ireland. It recolonizes continental Europe and extends northward from the desert margins of North Africa, the Middle East, and Central Asia, eventually reaching Britain and Ireland.

It can be a common butterfly, visiting late-summer gardens and other flowering areas. Typically, the first adults start laying eggs in June. It can occasionally be quite abundant locally due to massive migrations from these deserts that periodically flood other parts of the nation.

On the leaves of numerous different food plants, the female butterflies lay single pinhead-sized pale green eggs. The spiny caterpillars are greyish brown or purple-black with yellow lateral bands and chrysalis-like structures, hatching after three and five days. Once fully grown, they are black, orange, and yellow with white and black spots near the top of the wings.

Red Admiral

The red admiral butterfly is a big, powerful flyer that frequents gardens. In fact, you may find this recognizable and unique insect all around Alabama. The medium-sized red admiral, sometimes known as the red admirable, is a distinctive butterfly with dark wings, red streaks, and white spots. Also, its wingspan is roughly two inches.

The upper half of this butterfly is black with white specks at the apex. The summer form is bigger and livelier with an unbroken forewing band, whereas the winter form is smaller and paler.

The red admiral flies quickly and very erratically. In the late afternoon, males hover on ridgetops to wait for females, who lay their eggs one at a time on the ends of host plant leaves.

Monarch

The monarch is the most recognizable butterfly and can be spotted in Alabama! Caterpillars devour leaves and flowers while the females lay their eggs individually beneath the host leaves.

From August to October, adults fly thousands of kilometers south to hibernate near the coast of California and in central Mexico. A few spend the winter on the southern Atlantic or Gulf coast. Monarchs halt along the journey to consume flower nectar and gather at roosts at night.

The back wing has an area of scent scales, while the upper side of the male is bright orange with broad black borders and dark veins. Females have an orange-brown upper body with broad, smudged black borders and veins.

On the margins and apex, both sexes bear white dots. These butterflies can live in a variety of open environments, such as fields, grasslands, weedy areas, wetlands, and roadside vegetation.

American Lady

Another butterfly you’ll be able to spot in Alabama is the American lady. This species has irregular brown, yellow, and orange patterning on the upper side. Their forewings have a white bar at the periphery, a small white patch on the orange field underneath the patch, and a dark apical spot.

Two sizable eyespots on the underside of the hind wing can also be a way to distinguish this butterfly. The summer form is bigger and has brighter colors, whereas the winter form is smaller and dull.

Males rest on hillsides in the afternoons or, in the absence of hills, on low vegetation. On top of the leaves of the host plant, females lay one egg at a time. Caterpillars are isolated creatures that live and feed in nests made of leaves and silk.

Adults go into hibernation. These animals favor open areas with little vegetation, such as dunes, meadows, parks, empty lots, and the borders of forests.

Viceroy

A monarch butterfly and the viceroy butterfly are frequently confused. The viceroy’s orange and black upperside is similar to that of the Monarch (Danaus plexippus), with the exception of a long row of white spots in the black marginal strip and a black band running across the hindwing.

Viceroys eat aphid honeydew, carrion, manure, and rotting fungi in the early part of the season when there aren’t many flowers to choose from. Subsequent generations tend to eat more frequently on flowers, preferring composite plants such as Canada thistle, aster, goldenrod, joe-pye weed, and shepherd’s needle.

The edges of lakes and swamps, willow stands, valley bottoms, damp meadows, and roadside vegetation are just a few examples of places where they can be found. After hatching, caterpillars consume their eggshells before consuming leaves and catkins at night.

Hackberry Emperor

Throughout Alabama, hackberry butterflies soar in a quick and irregular manner. They can be found lying on tree trunks, upside down. In sunny places, males sit on tall objects to keep an eye out for females.

Clusters of eggs are laid, and the juvenile caterpillars share food. Caterpillars assemble in bunches inside rolled-up dead leaves to spend the winter. They have a reddish brown top part.

One submarginal eyespot, a ragged row of white dots, one solid black line, and two distinct black spots may be found on the forewing’s cell. Hackberry butterfly habitats include woodland streams, meadows, and riverbanks as well as towns and wooded roadside areas.

Mourning Cloak

Adult mourning cloak butterflies from Alabama that overwintered reproduce in the spring. The males wait for suitable females in the afternoons by perching in sunny apertures. Groups of eggs are placed around the branches of the host plant.

In June or July, the caterpillars pupate and hatch as adults. Caterpillars spend their lives in a communal web and feast on tender leaves together. The adults feed briefly before going dormant until autumn when they resurface to feed and gather energy for hibernation.

In the fall, some adults relocate to the south. Mourning cloaks favor tree sap, particularly oak tree sap. They descend the trunk to the sap and eat from the bottom up. They will sometimes consume flower nectar, but they will also snack on rotten fruit.

Pearl Crescent

Next, we’ll talk a bit about the beautiful butterfly known as the pearl crescent. Black antennal knobs are typically present on male pearl crescents. Their upper region is orange with black borders, and small black marks run across the postmedian and submarginal regions.

Pearl crescents have a light-colored crescent in a black bordering band underneath the hindwing. Undersides of the hindwings of spring and fall broods (form marcia) are gray-mottled. These butterflies can be found in open spaces all around Alabama, including pastures, road edges, bare lots, fields, and open pine forests.

Question Mark

If you see a stunning orange and black butterfly with tilted wing margins and small, tail-like extensions, that’s a question mark. There are brown hues underneath their wings. It resembles both the hoary comma and the eastern comma butterflies.

From North Dakota through Texas and east to the Atlantic coast, the question mark covers the eastern two-thirds of the United States. This butterfly can frequently be found in parks, wetlands, moist woodlands, and suburban settings.

Adults who hibernate during the winter can reawaken on warm, sunny days in warmer regions. This species gets its name from an apparent question mark formed by a silver curved line and adjoining dot.

With their wings closed, they resemble dried-up, withered leaves.

Eastern Comma

The majority of the Eastern United States, northeastern Texas, and southern Canada are all home to the eastern comma (Polygonia comma). Because of its liking of hop leaves, it has earned itself the nickname “Hop Merchant.”

It is distinguished by a silver “comma” on its rear wings that resembles tree bark and makes it smaller than the related question mark butterfly. From above, it is orange with deep brown markings and patterns.

The hoary comma and the eastern comma are comparable in size and appearance. Elm trees, fake nettle, and hop vines are examples of hosts. The Butterfly Bush is a preferred nectar plant.

Common Buckeye

The common buckeye (Junonia coenia) butterfly has a brown upper surface. Two orange streaks and two sizable black eyespots are present on the forewing. The top eyespot on the hindwing, which is the bigger of the two and features a magenta crescent, is the biggest.

Buckeyes prefer broad, sunlit spaces like fields and clearings. When they sense approaching motion, they fly fast while being tense and vigilant. In the spring, it quickly migrates northward to the majority of the United States and southern Canada since it cannot survive in subfreezing conditions.

In the fall, as people migrate south, the population grows. You can discover them on a number of nectar plants, including Hydrangea, Butterfly Bush, and Zinnia. Furthermore, mud and wet sand provide fluids for buckeyes.

IAN WARKENTIN

I am broadly interested in how human activities influence the ability of wildlife to persist in the modified environments that we create.

Specifically, my research investigates how the configuration and composition of landscapes influence the movement and population dynamics of forest birds. Both natural and human-derived fragmenting of habitat can influence where birds settle, how they access the resources they need to survive and reproduce, and these factors in turn affect population demographics. Most recently, I have been studying the ability of individuals to move through and utilize forested areas which have been modified through timber harvest as they seek out resources for the breeding and postfledging phases. As well I am working in collaboration with Parks Canada scientists to examine in the influence of high density moose populations on forest bird communities in Gros Morne National Park. Many of my projects are conducted in collaboration or consultation with representatives of industry and government agencies, seeking to improve the management and sustainability of natural resource extraction.