Top 10 smallest butterflies in the world

Butterflies are special creatures. Bright, light, they fly from flower to flower, bewitching. Since ancient times, people have watched butterflies, composed poems about their beauty, created signs and legends. Thanks to the wide colorful wings, so reminiscent of an inflorescence, they are very different from other insects on the planet.

The largest representatives of Lepidoptera can reach the size of two human palms. But this article will not talk about them at all, but about the smallest butterflies in the world, their names and photos. Despite their comparatively tiny size, they remain just as beautiful, chic, mysterious insects as their larger counterparts.

10 Argus brown

Body length – 14 mm, wingspan – 22-28 mm.

Other name – brown blueberry. Despite belonging to this family, there is not a trace of blue in the coloring of this argus. Her wings are brown, with yellow-orange holes along the edge. Males and females are similar, but the latter have larger and rarer spots. The underside is beige-gray, with orange holes and black spots.

Inhabits Argus in Europe, central and southern regions, in the Caucasus and in Asia Minor. The butterfly is quite rare, appears in May-June, then in late July – early August.

9. Phycitinae

Butterfly length – 10 mm, wingspan – 10-35 mm.

This butterfly resembles a very large moth, and you must have come across them in your life. Phycitinae belongs to the moth family, and there are so many species that it is not so easy to single out unambiguously common features.

Their wings are usually gray-brown. Even if they have a clear pattern, they still look nondescript. They have a well-developed proboscis, as well as a “muzzle” formed by elongated straight labial tentacles.

Representatives of Phycitinae are found all over the world, except perhaps in very inhospitable places. They were found even on separate islands in the open sea. More than 500 species are known in the world, about 100 live in Russia.

8. Thyme moth

Butterfly length – 13 mm, wingspan – 10-20 mm.

This butterfly looks like someone spilled coffee or cherry juice on it. In juveniles, the wings are red-gray and are crossed by three jagged lines, like stains from a spilled drink. Gradually, they fade to a brownish-pink, and then completely to gray.

Pheidenitsa lives in central Europe, in the south of central Russia and southern Siberia, as well as in Central Asia. The summer time of the first generation is June – July, the second – August – September.

The caterpillar of the moth is light green, with a dark stripe on the back. For habitat, the butterfly prefers desert places, among other things, it feeds on thyme, which is why it got its name.

7. Argus

Length – 11-15 mm, wingspan – 24-30 mm.

Unlike their brown counterpart, males pigeon argus have wings brown with blue. In females, they are simply brown, with a characteristic fringe at the ends. And below – gray-beige, with orange and black spots.

Argus live mainly on moorlands and in large areas. The summer time is from June to August, and in the fall, butterflies lay eggs that survive the winter safely. In spring, brown-green caterpillars with a dark stripe appear from them, which feed on heather and legumes.

Favorite place for pupation – anthills. The pupae secrete a sweet liquid, and the ants take care of them in return.

6. Camptogamma ocher yellow

Body size – 14 mm, wingspan – 20-25 mm.

This small butterfly can be of different colors from light yellow to deep brown. Light uneven stripes are visible from above, which make the butterfly look like a shell. The further north the camptogamma lives, the darker its wings.

The caterpillars of this butterfly are quite funny: black with a bright yellow stripe and yellow spots on the head. Her body is decorated with tufts of villi. Habitat camptogamma – almost all of Europe, except for the very northern countries. Flies in gardens, fields, wastelands. Summer time is from June to August.

5. Hives

Butterfly length – 20-25 mm, wingspan – 40-60 mm.

Hives from the Nymphalidae family – one of the most common butterflies in Europe. It has brick red wings, with three black spots alternating with yellow on the top. The edge is wavy. The reverse side of the wings is brown, with light spots.

Urticaria hibernates in the butterfly phase, and wakes up in the spring and lays eggs, so the first individuals can be seen as early as April. These nymphalids owe their species name to caterpillars, or rather to their diet. They prefer mainly nettles, less often hemp or hops. You can meet her almost everywhere, she was found in the Himalayas, the Alps, in Magadan and Yakutia.

4. Leaf roller

Length 10-12 mm wingspan – 16-20 mm.

Leaflet there are about 10 thousand species. Just like the Phycitinae, they look like large moths. The color of the wings is brown-yellow, with brown stripes and spots, the reverse side is off-white. The butterfly folds its wings into a house. Antennae bristle-shaped, long, directed to the back.

Caterpillars are light green. They feed mainly on leaves, which are twisted into tubes and bundles with the help of cobwebs. If it is disturbed, then it gets out of the shelter and hangs on a thin cobweb. If you have ever noticed how a thin green caterpillar hangs from a tree, then this is a leaf roller.

For fruit trees, it is considered a pest, eats leaves of plums, cherries, apple trees, often young ones, or buds. Such a misfortune is especially relevant for the Crimea. The leafworm lives in Europe and Asia almost everywhere, the summer time is from June to August.

3. Checkerboard blackish

Length – 16 mm, wingspan – 16-23 mm.

This butterfly from the Nymphalidae family has elegant dark brown wings with orange-yellow spots. There is a strong feeling that their surface is lined with black and yellow squares, reminiscent of a chess or checkers field. Hence the name – šašečnica.

Females practically do not differ in color, except that the colors are slightly lighter. The underside looks like a colorful stained-glass window: yellow upper wings and white-yellow-brown, as if from pieces of colored glass.

The caterpillars of this butterfly are very unusual: black, they have orange spike-like growths on their bodies, covered with black hairs. Checkerboarders live in Europe, Asia and China. Summer time – June – July.

2. Agriades glandon

Length – 16 mm, wingspan – 17-26 mm.

And again in our top pigeon. This time arctic, or Agriades glandon. The uppersides of the male’s wing are silvery, steely blue, or pale lustrous blue, and become increasingly brown towards the margins. The upper sides of the female’s wing are almost entirely brown, but with slightly bluish pollination in the basal region.

All wings usually have small dark disc spots, which are sometimes surrounded by white. The arctic pigeon lives in Eurasia and North America, flies from May to September, depending on the place of residence. Listed in the Red Book of the Komi Republic.

1. Zizula hylax

Length – about 10 mm, wingspan – 15 mm.

The smallest diurnal butterfly in the world belongs, again, to the family pigeons. It lives in Africa, Asia and Oceania, including India, Japan, the Philippines, the northern and eastern coasts of Australia. Therefore, the butterfly does not have a Russian name.

The wings are a dull purple-blue color that changes to a brighter shade of purple towards the tips. They have a beautiful black edging, as well as white villi at the ends.

If you look at the sun, it seems that the butterfly is glowing. The back side of the wings is speckled grey. The caterpillars of this blueberry are green, with a red stripe on the back and stripes on the sides.