• Insects
  • Insects
    • What are insects?
    • Why most animals are insects
    • Metamorphosis: a remarkable change
    • Herbivory: eating plants
    • Predators, parasites and parasitoids
    • Pollination
    • Seed dispersal
    • Decomposition - Corpse Fauna
  • Insects that bite and sting
    • Insect bites and stings
    • Ants: Family Formicidae
    • Bees: Suborder Apocrita
    • Wasps: Suborder Apocrita
    • Beach rove beetles
  • Australian insects
    • Ants: Family Formicidae
    • Bees: Suborder Apocrita
    • Beetles: Order Coleoptera
    • Cicadas: Superfamily Cicadoidea
    • Cockroaches: Order Blattodea
    • Dragonflies and damselflies: Order Odonata
    • Flies and mosquitoes: Order Diptera
    • Grasshoppers, crickets, katydids and locusts: Order Orthoptera
    • Lacewings and Antlions: Order Neuroptera
    • Leaf and Stick Insects: Order Phasmatodea
    • Moths, butterflies and skippers: Order Lepidoptera
    • Praying mantises: Order Mantodea
    • Sawflies, Wasps, Bees and Ants: Order Hymenoptera
    • Wasps: Suborder Apocrita
    • What are the differences between butterflies and moths?
    • What are the differences between bugs and beetles?
    • What are the differences between ants and termites?
    • What are the differences between flies and wasps?
  • Insects in the house and garden
    • Ants as pests
    • Ants: Family Formicidae
    • Termites as pests
    • What are the differences between ants and termites?
    • Flies and mosquitoes: Order Diptera
    • House Fly
    • Cockroaches: Order Blattodea
    • Termites
    • Beetles: Order Coleoptera
    • Case-bearing Clothes Moth
  • Insects in the Australian Museum Collections
    • Australian Museum Entomology Collection
    • Stalk-eyed Signal Flies
    • Rare - or just hidden?
    • Wombat Flies
    • Phantom Phasmids
    • More than Insects
    • Behind the Scenes - Entomology
• About the Museum
• What's on
• Visiting the Australian Museum

Image Gallery: Moths, butterflies and skippers

Moths, butterflies and skippers are insects in the Order Lepidoptera, which means 'scaly wings'. It is these overlapping scales that give them their spectacular colours and patterns.

Blue Triangle Butterfly

Blue Triangle Butterfly on leaf

Adult female Orchard Butterfly

Adult male Orchard Butterfly

Monarch Butterfly Danaus plexippus

Monarch Butterfly on flower

Common Brown Butterfly

Common Brown Butterfly resting

Common Brown Butterfly on branch

Meadow Argus Butterfly

Australian Admiral Butterfly

Australian or Yellow Admiral Butterfly

Adult Cabbage White Butterfly

Adult Caper White Butterfly

Adult Common Imperial Blue Butterfly

Common Grass Blue Butterfly

Orchard butterflies mating

Golden Azure Butterflies

Case-bearing Clothes Moth

Adult Bogong Moth, Agrotis infusa