Butterflies of the family Hesperiidae are also known as skippers, due to their fast-flying habits and strong bodies. There are about 3,000 species in this family, which are classified in eight subfamilies. Most of them live in the tropical areas of Central and South America. The regent skipper (Euschemon rafflesia), the brown longtail (Urbanus procne), the Australian right shield-skipper (Signeta flammeata) and the North-American silver-spotted skipper (Epargyreus clarus) are some examples.
Lycaenidae is a large family of butterflies, with more than 5,000 worldwide species. These butterflies are very colorful and often have a wingspan of less than 2 inches. Species include the common lineblue (Prosotas nora) and the Indian sunbeam (Curetis thetis) found in Asia; the common blue (Polyommatus icarus) and the small blue (Cupido minimus) found in Britain; and the North-American common copper (Lycaena phlaeas), Atala (Eumaeus atala), the banded hairstreak (Satyrium calanus) and the great purple hairstreak (Atlides halesus).
Members of the Nymphalidae family are often medium to big butterflies, also called brush-footed butterflies. With more than 5,000 known species an 600 genera, this family includes the purple emperor (Apatura iris,; the California tortoiseshell (Nymphalis californica), the monarch butterfly (Danaus plexippus), the iridescent blue morpho (Morpho menelaus), the cosmopolitan (Vanessa cardui) and the red admiral (Vanessa atalanta).
Also known as swallowtail butterflies because of the shape of their tails, Papilionidae species number about 600 in the world, distributed in 26 genera. These are often big butterflies with up to 11 inches of wingspan, such as the birdwing butterflies of the genus Ornithoptera, found in Australia and India.The Pieridae family includes more than 1,000 species and 76 genera of predominately yellow and white butterflies, such as the psyche (Leptosia nina), the clouded yellows (Colias) and the endemic California dogface butterfly (Zerene eurydice).
Members of the Riodinidae family are also known as metalmark butterflies, because some species have metallic-looking spots on their wings. There are about 1,000 species in the world, organized within two subfamilies: Euselasiinae and the larger Riodininae.The European duke of Burgundy (Hamearis lucina), the gray metalmark (Apodemia palmeri) and the endangered North American lange's metalmark butterfly (Apodemia mormo langei) are members of the Riodinidae family.