Butterfly Genus Species Butterflies are members of the kingdom Animalia, phylum Arthropoda, class Insecta, and order Lepidoptera. Generally, the order Lepidoptera is broken down into two sub-orders: Heterocera (the “varied-antennaed” moths) and the “club-antennaed” Rhopalocera, the sub-order to which the butterflies belong. The Rhopalocera sub-order includes 3 superfamilies: Hesperioidea (the skipper butterflies), Hedyloidea (the moth-butterflies), and Papilionoidea (the true butterflies). The true butterfly superfamily contains 5 families of butterflies: Papilionidae, Pieridae, Lycaenidae, Riodinidae, and Nymphalidae. The Papilionidae include the large and colorful Swallowtail, Apollo, and Birdwing butterflies. The Pieridae family consists mostly of white and yellow butterflies that live in Asia and Africa. The 6,000 species of butterflies that compose the Lycaenidae family are also known as the gossamer-winged butterflies, and the blues, coppers, hairstreaks, and harvesters are...