Butterflies and Moths of North America

collecting and sharing data about Lepidoptera

Identify a Butterfly, Moth, or Caterpillar

We can help identify your butterfly or moth!

If you know the date and location where the photograph was taken, we can help. It's simple!

 Register for a free account

  Submit a Sighting

A coordinator will review your submission, and you will get an email with the identification.

We will store your submitted data. Your submission will contribute to our species profiles, checklists, and database. You can track all your submissions and create a personal species list.


Identifying Caterpillars

Do you have a photograph of a caterpillar? If so, when you submit your photograph, please provide us with host plant information if possible. Consider raising it to the adult stage before submitting photographs.

Surprisingly, most of the larval stages of butterflies and moths are simply unknown, and caterpillar photographs can be very difficult to identify. It may take some time for a coordinator to identify your caterpillar.

You can also browse all the caterpillar images in the image gallery.

No photograph?

If you do NOT have a photograph or you do not want to create an account and submit your sighting, you can use our website to try to identify the species yourself. Start by browsing image thumbnails in the Image Gallery. Use the filters to narrow your search.

Cannot find your species using the Image Gallery? Try the Identification Tools, where you will find additional identification resources, including web and text resources for butterflies, moths, and caterpillars.