The Order Lepidoptera is the second largest
insect Order in the
island with
about 2160
species.
At least 195 of them
are true
Butterflies and 49 are Skippers, rest
being macro
and micro Moths.
These numbers
include 23 species of Endemic butterflies. Endemicity of
other Lepidoptera is
still uncertain and cannot give exact figure without further studies.
Classification for Butterflies of Sri Lanka
Classified in to 11 Families. This classification was first used by D' Abrera (1998) in his work in 'The Butterflies of Ceylon'. The same classification is followed in this Website, And is followed by many reasent authors ( Van der Poorten, 2006, Wikramanayake A. & A., 2006, Gamage R., 2007) as well.
Superfamily |
|
Family |
|
PAPILIONOIDEA |
|
Papilionidae |
|
| |
Pieridae |
|
| |
Danaidae |
|
| |
Nymphalidae |
|
| |
Libytheidae |
|
| |
Acraeidae |
|
| |
Amathusiidae |
|
| |
Satyridae |
|
| |
Lycaenidae |
|
| |
Riodinidae |
|
HESPERIOIDEA |
|
Hesperiidae |
|
Other Classification sysytems for Butterflies of Sri Lanka
Classified in to five Families. Five other families are classified as subfamilies of Nymphalidae and Riodinidae also a sub family of Lycanidae. This is based on the classification of Ackery et. al (1999), and is used by reasent authors (Perera & Bambaradeniya, 2006).
Superfamily |
|
Family |
sub-Family |
PAPILIONOIDEA |
|
Papilionidae |
|
| |
|
Pieridae |
|
| |
Nymphalidae |
Danainae |
| |
|
Libytheinae |
| |
|
Amathusiinae |
| |
|
Satyrinae |
| |
|
Acraeinae |
| |
Lycaenidae |
Lycaeninae |
| |
|
Riodininae |
| |
|
|
HESPERIOIDEA |
|
Hesperiidae |
|
|
|
