The following is a list of all butterflies found in the geographical realm of China divided by families. Temperate North China is located in Central Asia and the

Palearctic realm The Palearctic or Palaearctic is the largest of the eight biogeographic realms of the Earth. It stretches across all of Eurasia north of the foothills of the Himalayas, and North Africa. The realm consists of several bioregions: the Euro-Sib ...

. The rest of China, including the tropical South China (with

Hainan Hainan (, ; ) is the smallest and southernmost province of the People's Republic of China (PRC), consisting of various islands in the South China Sea. , the largest and most populous island in China,The island of Taiwan, which is slightly l ...

Hong Kong Hong Kong ( (US) or (UK); , ), officially the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region of the People's Republic of China (abbr. Hong Kong SAR or HKSAR), is a city and special administrative region of China on the eastern Pearl River Delta i ...

), and

Taiwan Taiwan, officially the Republic of China (ROC), is a country in East Asia, at the junction of the East and South China Seas in the northwestern Pacific Ocean, with the People's Republic of China (PRC) to the northwest, Japan to the nort ...

belong to the Indomalayan realm. In many parts of China the Palearctic and Oriental faunas overlap. This list includes species recorded from

Tian Shan The Tian Shan,, , otk, 𐰴𐰣 𐱅𐰭𐰼𐰃, , tr, Tanrı Dağı, mn, Тэнгэр уул, , ug, تەڭرىتاغ, , , kk, Тәңіртауы / Алатау, , , ky, Теңир-Тоо / Ала-Тоо, , , uz, Tyan-Shan / Tangritog‘ ...

Amur The Amur (russian: река́ Аму́р, ), or Heilong Jiang (, "Black Dragon River", ), is the world's tenth longest river, forming the border between the Russian Far East and Northeastern China ( Inner Manchuria). The Amur proper is long, ...

and

Ussuri The Ussuri or Wusuli (russian: Уссури; ) is a river that runs through Khabarovsk and Primorsky Krais, Russia and the southeast region of Northeast China. It rises in the Sikhote-Alin mountain range, flowing north and forming part of the ...

. There are 1,317 species recorded from China.

History of study

Early work on the butterfly fauna of China was undertaken by European entomologists:

Edward Donovan Edward Donovan (1768 – 1 February 1837) was an Anglo-Irish writer, natural history illustrator, and amateur zoologist. He did not travel, but collected, described and illustrated many species based on the collections of other naturalists. H ...

John Henry Leech John Henry Leech (5 December 1862 – 29 December 1900) was an English entomologist who specialised in Lepidoptera and Coleoptera. His collections from China, Japan, and Kashmir are in the Natural History Museum, London. These also contain inse ...

Henry John Elwes Henry John Elwes, FRS (16 May 1846 – 26 November 1922) was a British botanist, entomologist, author, lepidopterist, collector and traveller who became renowned for collecting specimens of lilies during trips to the Himalaya and Korea. He w ...

, Charles Oberthür, Ernest Grandidier,

Otto Staudinger Otto Staudinger (2 May 1830 – 13 October 1900) was a German entomologist and a natural history dealer considered one of the largest in the world specialising in the collection and sale of insects to museums, scientific institutions, and in ...

Hans Fruhstorfer Hans Fruhstorfer (7 March 1866, in Passau, Germany – 9 April 1922, in Munich) was a German explorer, insect trader and entomologist who specialised in Lepidoptera. He collected and described new species of exotic butterflies, especially in ...

Alfred Otto Herz Alfred Otto Herz (14 October 1856 Hoyerswerda, Silesia – 12 July 1905) was a German entomologist who specialised in Lepidoptera and Coleoptera. He was employed as a collector and preparator by the Otto Staudinger - Andreas Bang-Haas insect deale ...

, Arthur Poujade, Pierre Joseph Michel Lorquin,

Paul Mabille Paul Mabille (1835 – 6 April 1923) was a French naturalist mainly interested in Lepidoptera and botany. Mabille was born in 1835 in Tours, France. He was a member and President (1876–1877) of the Société entomologique de France and a memb ...

Sergei Alphéraky Sergei Nikolaevich Alphéraky (1850–1918) (sometimes Alphéraki or Alferaki) was a Russian ornithologist and entomologist who specialised in Lepidoptera. Sergei Alphéraky was born into the noble Greek family of Alferakis and was the brothe ...

and Rudolf Püngeler furnish examples. Thousands of plant, insect and mammal species were described in the 19th century by scientists of the

Muséum national d'histoire naturelle The French National Museum of Natural History, known in French as the ' (abbreviation MNHN), is the national natural history museum of France and a ' of higher education part of Sorbonne Universities. The main museum, with four galleries, is loc ...

, Paris, in connection with permanent settlements of missionaries of the Missions étrangères de Paris in north-west

Yunnan Yunnan , () is a landlocked province in the southwest of the People's Republic of China. The province spans approximately and has a population of 48.3 million (as of 2018). The capital of the province is Kunming. The province borders the C ...

. The extreme south of Yunnan province, just to the north of Laos has tropical forests and the biological diversity of this area is the most abundant in China. In the early 20th century the faunal studies of European workers on China were summarised in ''Die Gross-Schmetterlinge der Erde'' edited by

Adalbert Seitz Friedrich Joseph Adalbert Seitz, (24 February 1860 in Mainz – 5 March 1938 in Darmstadt) was a German physician and entomologist who specialised in Lepidoptera. He was a director of the Frankfurt zoo from 1893 to 1908 and is best known for e ...

. In the 1930s, Wong Chi-yu, Chou Io and Miss NgYukchau published reports on butterfly species of Zhejiang, Guangdong provinces and Chuankang Area and Ningbo (Zhejiang Province) respectively.

Rudolf Mell Rudolf Emil Mell (1878 in Gera, Thuringia – 1970 in Berlin) was a German zoologist and entomologist who specialised in Lepidoptera especially Sphingidae and the fauna of China. He was the director of the German-Chinese Middle School at Canton ( ...

, director of the German-Chinese Middle School at Canton (

Guangzhou Guangzhou (, ; ; or ; ), also known as Canton () and alternatively romanized as Kwongchow or Kwangchow, is the capital and largest city of Guangdong province in southern China. Located on the Pearl River about north-northwest of Hong Kon ...

) published notes on butterflies in ''Beiträge zur Fauna sinica'' (Deut. ent. Zeit.) and other works. From the 1960s to the 1980s, Lee Chuan-lung published revisionary works and descriptions of a number of new species of butterflies from China. Some of these were collected during Sino-Soviet expeditions to Chinese Central Asia when Chinese entomologists worked with their Russian counterparts. ''Iconographia Insectorum Shensi-corum: Rhopalocera'' was published in 1978 by the then Northwestern College of Agriculture. Following that, books on the butterfly fauna of Gansu, Hunan (Chenzhou), Guangxi, Guangdong (Lingnan), Henan and Zhejiang were published and also checklists of the butterflies of Jiangxi, Shandong, Ningxia and Xinjiang. In 1992, ''The Atlas of Chinese Butterflies'' was published by Lee Chuan-lung. In 1994, ''Monographia Rhopalocerorum Sinensium'' edited by Chou Io was published, summarising studies by forty-nine lepidopterists from all over China, including Hong Kong and Taiwan. In 1996 the Butterfly Association of th
Entomological Society of China
was founded. It is based in the Northwestern Agricultural University. Chou Io revised ''Monographia Rhopalocerorum Sinensium'' in 1998 in Classification and Identification of Chinese Butterflies Field Identification Guide. Other and more recent work appears i

Lists per family

* Papilionidae - swallowtail butterflies * Hesperiidae - skipper butterflies * Pieridae - whites and yellows * Lycaenidae - blues, hairstreaks and gossamer-winged butterflies * Riodinidae - metalmarks * Nymphalidae - brush-footed butterflies

Geography

Right is a physical map of Siberia. China shares this region and many of its butterflies. The South region belongs to Indomalayan realm and shares species with

Indochina Mainland Southeast Asia, also known as the Indochinese Peninsula or Indochina, is the continental portion of Southeast Asia. It lies east of the Indian subcontinent and south of Mainland China and is bordered by the Indian Ocean to the west an ...

References

*Bernard D'Abrera ''Butterflies of the Oriental Region''. Part 1 (1981) Papilionidae, Pieridae, Danaidae Part 2 (1983) Nymphalidae, Satyridae, Amathusidae Part 3 (1986) Lycaenidae, Riodinidae Hill House Publishers Lansdowne Editions. *Evans, 1949 ''A Catalogue of the Hesperiidae from Europe, Asia and Australia in the British Museum Cat. Hesp. Europe Asia Australia'' British Museum: 1–502, pl. 1-53 * Leech, J. H. 1891 New Species of Rhopalocera from Western China ''Entomologist'' 24 (Suppl.): 57–61, 66-68 *Leech, 1893 ''Butterflies from China, Japan, and Corea'' three volumes * Moore, 1884 Descriptions of some new Asiatic diurnal Lepidoptera; chiefly from specimens contained in the Indian Museum, Calcutta ''Journal of the Asiatic Society of Bengal'' 53 Pt.II (1): 16-52 * Oberthür,C. 1886 Espèces Nouvelles de Lépidoptères du Thibet Nouveaux Lépidoptères du Thibet ''Études d'Entomologie''. 11: 13–38, pl. 1-7 *

, 1886–1889. Centralasiatische Lepidopteren. ''Stettiner Entomologische Zeitung'' 47
193-215, 225-256
48''
49-102
49
1-64
50''
16-60
*Staudinger, O., 1887. Neue Arten und Varietäten von Lepidopteren aus dem Amur-gebeit. In Romanoff ''Mémoires sur les lépidoptères'' 3
126-232pls 6-12,16,17
*

, 1889 Lépidoptères rapportés de ia Chine et de la Mongolie par G. N. Potanine in Romanoff, ''Mémoires sur les lépidoptères'' 5: 90-123, pl. 5 *Chou, I0 (ed) 1994. ''Monographia Rhopalocerorum Sinensium'' (Monograph of Chinese Butterflies). Henan Scientific and Technological Publishing House, Zhengzhou.(in Chinese).. Lists 1,227 species in 327 genera. There are 41 species and 44 subspecies newly described, as well, plus new distribution records for China. New species descriptions are noted in English . Colour photographs of the species treated, with accompanying Chinese text. *Chou Io,1998 Classification and Identification of Chinese Butterflies Field Identification Guide 848 colour photos derived from ''Monographia Rhopalocerorum Sinensium'' {{ISBN, 7534920124 Lists 1,317 species from China, 92 more species than those in ''Monographia Rhopalocerorum Sinensium'' (1994). Three new tribes have been established. *Department of Plant Protection, Northwestern China Agricultural Institute. 1978. Iconographia Insectorum Shensicorum. Lepidoptera: Rhopalocera. Shaanxi People Press (Shan Xi Ren Min Chu Ban She), Xi'an, Shaanxi, China. 81p *Sugiyama, 1999 New butterflies from western China 6. ''Pallarge'' 7: *Johnson, 1992 The Palaearctic "Elfin" Butterflies (Lycaenidae, Theclinae) ''Neue Entomologische Nachrichten'' 29: 3-141 *Huang, 2001 Report of H. Huang's 2000 Expedition to SE. Tibet for Rhopalocera ''Neue Entomologische Nachrichten'' 51: 65-152 *Huang, 2002 Some new Butterflies from China 2 ''Atalanta'' 33 (1/2): 109-122 *Huang & Xue, 2004 Notes on some Chinese butterflies ''Neue Entomologische Nachrichten'' 57: 171–177, pl. 14 *H. Huang 2002: Some new satyrids of the tribe Lethini from China. ''Atalanta'' 33 (3/4): 361–372. *Huang, 2003 A list of butterflies collected from Nujiang (Lou Tse Kiang) and Dulongiang, China with descriptions of new species, and revisional notes ''Neue Entomologische Nachrichten'' 55: 3-114 *Huang & Wu, 2003 New and little known Chinese butterflies in the collection of the Institute of Zoology, Academia Sinica, Beijing - 1 ''Neue Entomologische Nachrichten'' 55: 115-143 *Huang & Xue, 2004 A Contribution to the Butterfly Fauna of Southern Yunnan ''Neue Entomologische Nachrichten'' 57: 135–154, pl. 11 *Lee Chuan-lung 1960s to 1980s New Chinese Butterflies ''Acta Entomologica Sinica'' etc. *Forster, 1940 Neue Lycaeniden-Formen aus China. 1 ''Mitteilungen der Münchner Entomologischen Gesellschaft'' 30: 870–883, pl. 22-24 * Seitz, A., 1912a-1927. ''Die Palaearktischen Tagfalter. Grossschmetterlinge Erde'' 1: 8-37
online in Germanonline in English
* Ludwig Carl Friedrich Graeser, 1888-9 Beiträge zur Kenntnis der Lepidopteren-Fauna des Amurlandes ''Berl. Ent. Zs''. 32 (1): 33-153 (1888), (2): 309-414 (1889) *Seitz, A. ,1927 ''Die indo-australischen Tagfalter Die exotischen Großschmetterlinge'', 1197 Seiten 177 Tafeln. *

, 1876 Sur la classification des Hesperiens avec la description de plusieurs espèces nouvelles. ''Annales de la Société Entomologique de France'' (5)251-274. *Yoshino, K., 1995- 2003 New butterflies from China 1–8. ''Nota Lepidoptera'' and ''Futao''. *Weiss, J.-C. 1992. ''The Parnassiinae of the World''. Part 2. Sciences Nat,

Venette Venette () is a commune in the Oise department in northern France. The town is located along the river Oise, near Compiègne. Population Its inhabitants are called Venettiens. There are about 2800 inhabitants (2012). See also * Communes of the ...

; 87 pp. Key Works Walter Forster

External links

* Catalogue of life China List provided by online_here
at_Digital_Moths_of_Japan._Includes_images.
Wikispecies
taxonomy_additional_references_via_species_or_genus
Euroleps
Butterflies_of_the_Palearctic *''Futao''_ISSN_0916-111

Lists_of_butterflies_by_location.html" ;"title="Chinese Academy of Sciences
online here
at Digital Moths of Japan. Includes images.
Wikispecies
taxonomy additional references via species or genus
Euroleps
Butterflies of the Palearctic *''Futao'' ISSN 0916-111

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