Dorset's Butterflies and Moths
There are 45 species of Butterfly in Dorset (46 including
the Pearl-bordered Fritillary, which has not been seen now for several
years in Dorset). Below is an alphabetical listing.
For a listing by Family click here. For a listing by Latin Name click here.
To find a brief description of each species and where to find them, please click on their names, or click here for a basic identification guide. This is, of course, no substitute for a decent book on the subject, but may help with more simple identification queries. The listing of where to find the butterflies and moths names the Transect Routes where they are seen most often, rather than a full listing of everywhere they are found. If the listing states anywhere, this means they are found on at least 95% of all Transects in the County.
These descriptions are not intended as a comprehensive identification guide - for this, we recommend you buy one of the many excellent books on the market.
A chart showing the flight periods of Dorset's Butterflies, along with their foodplants, habitats and typical behaviour is available here or, if you want to print it in PDF format click here. To view the pdf, you must have Acrobat Reader.