How to Identify a Red-Spotted Purple Butterfly

A butterfly in your yard is always a welcome sight, but if that butterfly shimmers? Even better! The red-spotted purple butterfly has an iridescent sheen that makes it truly eye-catching. Here’s what you need to know about this pretty pollinator.

Meet the red admiral butterfly and learn how to attract them.

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Red-Spotted Purple Butterfly Markings

252867086 1 Nevin Shrom Bnb Bypc2020 — A red-spotted purple butterfly has iridescent wings

These gorgeous butterflies glimmer in the sunlight. From above, they are mostly black and iridescent blue with small orange spots on the wing tips. In addition, more red-orange markings are visible from below.

Learn how to identify and attract a red admiral butterfly.

Where to Find a Red-Spotted Purple Butterfly

Bnbugc Mike Brickl 5 — Red-spotted purple putterfly on a coneflower

Red-spotted purples aren’t found throughout the whole United States, so your best bet of finding one is in the eastern part of the country. Additional populations are found in the Southwest as well. In those regions, you’re most likely to find one in wooded areas. They’re commonly found in suburbs.

Here’s how to tell the difference between moths vs butterflies.

What Do Red-Spotted Purple Butterflies Eat?

Red-spotted purple butterfly. — Red-spotted purple eating fruit

Flower nectar isn’t the preferred diet for these colorful fliers. Instead, to attract them to your yard, you’ll want to serve fruit. Offer them overripe bananas, citrus, apples or any other juicy fruit. They may also visit sugar-water feeders.

Red-Spotted Purple Caterpillar

Red spotted purple caterpillars give little indication of the lovely creature they’ll grow up to be! The brown, green and white caterpillars have humps on their backs and dark-colored hornlike appendages.

Red-Spotted Purple Host Plants

Unlike a monarch butterfly, you cannot attract the red-spotted purple to backyards with milkweed plants. Cottonwoods, willows, wild cherries and other trees are their preferred host plants.

Regional Forms

13 Askexperts Bbjj23 Lindasaverino — This butterfly species may also be called a red-spotted admiral.

“What’s this butterfly on my deck?” asks Birds & Blooms reader Linda Saverino of Hermitage, Pennsylvania.

Experts Kenn and Kimberly Kaufman say, “The short answer is that this butterfly is usually called a red-spotted purple. But it’s also called red-spotted admiral, and that reflects an intriguing fact. This butterfly has a double identity, with two regional forms that look different. The one in your photo, the red-spotted purple, is widespread in the Southeast.”

251571656 1 Sharyl Digiovanni Bnb Bypc2020 — White admiral butterfly

Kenn and Kimberly continue, “You can find the other one, the white admiral (pictured above), across Alaska, Canada, and parts of the northern states. It has a broad white band across black wings, and red spots on the hindwings. Where you are in Pennsylvania, you might see intermediates that share some markings of both forms, so it’s worth watching for them.”

Next, discover fascinating butterfly facts you didn’t know.

Author

Rachel Maidl

Rachel Maidl is a former senior editor for Birds & Blooms magazine. She enjoys bird-watching in her urban backyard and local state parks, gardening for pollinators and researching new plants. Her favorite backyard visitors are the bumblebees that visit her sedums.

Reviewer

Kenn and Kimberly Kaufman

As a teenager in the 1970s, Kenn Kaufman hitch-hiked all over North America in pursuit of birds, an adventure later chronicled in his cult-classic book Kingbird Highway. After several years as a professional nature tour leader, taking groups to all seven continents, he transitioned to a career as a writer, editor, and illustrator. His 14 books incl...

Fact Checker

Kirsten Schrader

Now Birds & Blooms' content director, Kirsten has been writing about birding and gardening for 17 years. Her writing and editing roles have spanned the print and digital landscape. Although she has traveled to see amazing birds throughout the U.S., Kirsten has one dream bucket list bird—the male painted bunting.