Palouse Butterflies

Western Branded Skipper (lateral view) on purple flower, Moscow Mnt, Latah Co., northern ID USA 9-7-12 (photo: T.D. Hatten)

At least 205 butterfly species can be found in Latah and Whitman Counties.  We’ve listed them for you in our Latah and Whitman County butterfly list.

We hope this list will guide citizen monitors in their efforts to collect additional data for the region or to reconcile their own observations with existing species accounts. Our list is a work in progress, but it will give you a rough indication of the butterfly species that you can see on the Palouse.

We generated this list by consulting species checklists and maps from several sources including the Butterflies and Moths of North America website, Butterflies of British Columbia [2] and butterfly field guides by Pyle [4]and Glassberg [1]. The list was also improved by species accounts from Amy Poeciwicz [3]. Subspecies accounts have not been included at this time. All synonyms were reconciled following the English names of the North American Butterfly Association [5].

Despite the preliminary nature of this list, we hope it will stimulate interest and butterfly watching in your area! Note that all photos used were licensed through Creative Commons, unless otherwise credited.

Please check back for updates!

References:

  1. Glassberg, J. 2001. Butterflies through Binoculars: A field guide to the butterflies of North America. Oxford University Press, New York, New York.
  2. Guppy, C. S., Shepard, J. H. 2001. Butterflies of British Columbia. University of British Columbia Press, Vancouver, British Columbia.
  3. Poeciwicz, A. 2006. Modeling landscape change and evaluating ecological effects of landscape composition and configuration in Northern Idaho. Dissertation, University of Idaho, Moscow, ID.
  4. Pyle, R. M. 2002. The Butterflies of Cascadia. Seattle Audobon Society, Seattle, Washington.
  5. The North American Butterfly Association (NABA) checklist & English names of North American butterflies (Second Edition). 2001. North American Butterfly Association, Morristown, New Jersey.