List of butterflies of China

Early work on the butterfly fauna of China was undertaken by European entomologists: Edward Donovan, John Henry Leech, Henry John Elwes, Charles Oberthür, Ernest Grandidier, Otto Staudinger, Hans Fruhstorfer, Alfred Otto Herz, Arthur Poujade, Pierre Joseph Michel Lorquin, Paul Mabille, Sergei Alphéraky and Rudolf Püngeler furnish examples.

In the early 20th century the faunal studies of European workers on China were summarised in Die Gross-Schmetterlinge der Erde edited by Adalbert Seitz.

In the 1930s, Wong Chi-yu, Chou Io, and Miss NgYukchau published reports on butterfly species in Zhejiang and Guangdong provinces, the Chuankang Area, and Ningbo, respectively.

Rudolf Mell, director of the German-Chinese Middle School at Canton (Guangzhou) published notes on butterflies in Beiträge zur Fauna sinica (Deut.

In 1994, Monographia Rhopalocerorum Sinensium edited by Chou Io was published, summarising studies by forty-nine lepidopterists from all over China, including Hong Kong and Taiwan.

Plate from Edward Donovan 's An Epitome of the Natural History of the Insects of China , 1838
Far northern China has a subarctic climate and shares many of its butterflies with Siberia. Southern China belongs to Indomalayan realm and shares subtropical species with Indochina . Most of Hainan Island and parts of the extreme southern fringes of Yunnan have a tropical climate.