Butterflies have been called 'flying flowers' and a bright flash of a fluttering beauty nearby always brings a smile. But how much more satisfying that brief glimpse is if you recognise the species that's flying by. Here to help is a guide to the butterflies you're most likely to spot in the UK. With thanks to Butterfly Conservation

Left: Marbled white 

Some say that the word 'butterfly' comes from the yellow colour of male brimstones. Females have pale yellow-green wings, looking almost white in flight. The brimstone has spread in recent years, mainly in northern England. When these butterflies roost among foliage, the angular shape and the strong veining of their wings closely resemble leaves.

What it eats Larvae feed on leaves of buckthorn, which occurs  mainly on calcareous soils, and alder buckthorn, which is found  on moist acid soils and wetlands.

Where to find it England, Wales and Ireland, in scrubby grassland, woodland (especially damp carr woodland, hedgerows, and open ground where food plants are found in sunny positions. It can often be seen flying along roadside verges and tracks with hedgerows, well away from food plants.

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This fast-flying migrant is a regular visitor to Britain and Ireland. It's found in North Africa and southern Europe and eastwards through Turkey into the Middle East. It occurs throughout much of Europe as a summer migrant, but very few reach Scandinavia. Although some of these golden-yellow butterflies are seen every year, the species is famous for occasional mass immigrations and subsequent breeding, which are fondly and long remembered as 'Clouded Yellow Years'.

What it eats Wild and cultivated clovers, lucerne and, less frequently, common bird's-foot-trefoil.

Where to find it In flowery places where the larval foodplants grow. As clovers are still common, the Clouded Yellow has no difficulty locating breeding habitat in modern farmed countryside. In southern England there is a preference for unimproved chalk downland. 

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The comma is widespread in England and Wales, starting to colonise Scotland, and occasionally seen in Ireland.

Adult commas are camouflaged among dead leaves, while the larvae, flecked with brown and white, resemble bird droppings!

The Comma was in severe decline in the 20th century but has made a strong comeback. It is now widespread in southern Britain and its range is expanding northwards.

What it eats Common nettle, hop, elms, currants and willows.

Where to find it Open woodland and wood edges, for breeding and hibernating. Pre-hibernation Commas range more widely in search of nectar and rotting fruit, and are seen regularly in gardens and many other habitats. 

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As its name implies, the Gatekeeper (also known as the Hedge Brown) is often found where clumps of flowers grow in gateways and along hedgerows and field edges.

It's widespread in southern Britain and its range has extended northwards in recent years. Its range is far more localised in southern Ireland.

What it eats Various grasses are used, with a preference for fine grasses such as bents, fescues, and meadow-grasses. Common couch is also used. Favourite nectar sources include wild marjoram, common fleabane, ragworts and bramble.

Where to find it In grassland where tall grasses grow close to hedges, trees, or scrub, particularly along hedgerows and woodland rides and also in habitats such as undercliffs, heathland, and downland where there are patches of scrub. Gatekeepers avoid open grassland with short vegetation.

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Orange tips are common and widespread, and seen commonly in early summer along hedgerows, road verges, and woodland edges.

The butterfly is widespread in Ireland and southern Britain and has spread north rapidly over the past 25 years, especially in Scotland.

What it eats Cuckooflower in damp meadows and garlic mustard along road verges and ditches. Occasionally, it uses hedge mustard, winter-cress, turnip, charlock, large bitter-cress, and hairy rock-cress. It also lays eggs on honesty and dame's-violet in gardens.

Where to find it A wide range of damp, grassy habitats, including meadows, grassy areas in woodland, road verges and waterside habitats such as ditches and the banks of rivers and canals.

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Painted Ladies are a common and widespread migrant found throughout Britain and Ireland in most years. The Painted Lady is a long-distance migrant. Each year, it spreads northwards from the desert fringes of North Africa, the Middle East, and central Asia, recolonising mainland Europe and reaching Britain and Ireland. In some years it is abundant, frequenting gardens and other flowery places in late summer.

What it eats A wide range of foodplants may be used, with thistles being preferred in Britain and Ireland. Mallows (Malva spp.), Common Nettle (Urtica dioica), Viper's-bugloss (Echium vulgare), and various cultivated plants also have been recorded as larval foodplants here.

Where to find it Because it is a wide-ranging migrant, the Painted Lady may be seen in any habitat. Adults tend to congregate in open areas with plenty of thistles, which serve both as larval foodplants and nectar sources for adults.

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Peacock butterflies are widespread throughout the UK and Ireland and often seen in gardens.

Their spectacular eyespots, similar to those on a peacock's tail, evolved to startle or confuse predators, make it one of the most easily recognised butterflies.

Often found on garden buddleias in late summer, the Peacock's strong flight and nomadic instincts lead it to range widely through the countryside, in its preferred habitats of woodland clearings and edges.

What it eats Common nettle, although eggs and larvae are occasionally reported on small nettle and hops.

Where to find it Peacock butterflies may be seen almost anywhere, searching for suitable breeding or nectaring sites. These are often open, sunny places in woodland where the preferred nectar plants are found, such as willows in spring and teasels, thistles, and hemp-agrimony in late summer. It usualy lays eggs in large nettle patches, in sunny positions in the shelter of woodland or hedgerows.

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Red Admirals are common in gardens throughout Britain and Ireland.

Immigrant females lay eggs and so there are fresh butterflies from about July onwards. They continue flying into October or November and are typically seen nectaring on garden buddleias, flowering ivy and rotting fruit. Numbers have increased in recent years.

What it eats The most important and widely available larval foodplant is common nettle, with small nettle, Pellitory-of-the-wall and hops.

Where to find it This strong-flying migratory species may be seen throughout Britain and Ireland in almost any habitat, from seashore to town centres and mountain tops.

In spring, each newly arrived male defends its chosen territory vigorously. Initially, these territories are close to the south coast, then further inland and typically on bushy hillsides, in sheltered gardens, or sunny clearings. Females are usually seen near nettle beds except when nectaring.

Later in the season, any flower-rich habitat is likely to attract the butterfly, including gardens where buddleias, stonecrops, and Michaelmas daisies are all popular. They also favour orchards where fruit is rotting on the ground.

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As its name suggests, this butterfly is found predominantly in Scotland, in tall, damp grassland, but in England it's found in just two isolated sites.

What it eats In Scotland it's thought to be purple moor-grass , and in northern England blue moor-grass. 

Where to find it The Scotch Argus is to be found in damp, acid or neutral grassland up to 500 m in montane regions of Scotland, and around the fringes of sheltered bogs, in woodland clearings, and young plantations. In northern England it is now restricted to two sites with sheltered limestone grassland, scrub, and woodland. The butterfly is found only in tall grasslands that are lightly grazed or ungrazed.

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Silver-washed fritillaries are widespread across southern England and Wales and more locally in northern England and Ireland. The swooping flight of this large, graceful butterfly is one of the most beautiful sights in woodland in high summer. It's named after the silver streaks on its underside which you can see as it stops to feed on flowers such as bramble.

Although the butterfly is seen mostly in sunny glades, it breeds in the shadier parts of adjacent woodland.

The Silver-washed Fritillary declined during the 20th century, but has increased in numbers in recent decades.

What it eats Mainly common dog-violet, in shady or semi-shady woodland spots.

Where to find it Silver-washed Fritillaries breed in broad-leaved woodland, especially oak woodland or woods with sunny glades. It occasionally uses mixed broad-leaved and conifer plantations and, in parts of south-west England and Ireland, also breeds in wooded hedgerows and sheltered lanes near woods. 

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Speckled Woods are found throughout Britain and Ireland, in woodland, gardens and hedgerows. They often perch in sunny spots, spiralling into the air to chase each other.

They fly in partially shaded woodland with dappled sunlight. The range of this butterfly contracted during the late 19th and early 20th centuries, but has incresed since the 1920s. In the past two decades, it has recolonised many areas in eastern and northern England and Scotland.

What it eats Various grasses, including false brome, cock's-foot, Yorkshire-fog and common couch.

Where to find it Towards the northern and eastern margins of its range, the Speckled Wood breeds only in woodland, but elsewhere it also uses lanes and tracks between tall hedgerows, parks, gardens, and scrub. It seems to prefer slightly damp areas with tall grass and some shade. 

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Swallowtails are found only in the Norfolk Broads, although migrants are occasionally seen elsewhere.

This is one of our rarest and most spectacular butterflies. The British race britannicus is a specialist of wet fenland and is currently restricted to the Norfolk Broads. Here the adults can be seen flying powerfully over open fen vegetation, stopping to feed on flowers such as thistles and Ragged-Robin.

The butterfly probably declined within its range during the 20th century but has benefited over the last few decades from conservation management aimed at increasing open fen vegetation. There are also scattered records of migrants of the continental race.

What it eats Native British Swallowtails feed only on milk-parsley. Occasional migrants of the continental race gorganus use a variety of umbellifers such as wild carrot and wild angelica.

Where to find it In the Norfolk Broads, in vigorous milk-parsley. Swallowtails prefer areas of mixed fen with sedge or reed.

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