Butterflies Around the World Are Moving to New Habitats, Largely Because of Climate Change, a Study Suggests

Researchers examined data on 1,758 butterfly species—about ten percent of all those known—from 105 countries and estimated that about one in ten global species has shifted its distribution range

Sara Hashemi | Daily Correspondent

August 7, 2026 10:00 a.m.

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As the world warms, butterflies across the globe are relocating to new environments.

The insects are considered sentinels of change because of their sensitivity to shifts in temperature, rainfall and habitat conditions. Past research has found alterations in their ranges, but much of it focuses on specific species and geographic locations.

Now, to get a more complete understanding, a team has combed through thousands of published studies and records of expert knowledge, including non-traditional data sources in 15 languages. The work, published in the journal Nature Ecology & Evolution on August 5, hints that roughly one in ten butterfly species worldwide has altered its distribution range.

The findings offer one of the largest, most comprehensive pictures of how climate change and other factors shaping the lives of the iconic fluttering insects.

“We found butterfly species shifting their ranges on every continent where they occur. The scale is astonishing, and it’s happening far beyond the well‑studied regions of Europe and North America,” says study co-author Shawan Chowdhury, a global change biologist at Monash University in Australia, in a statement.

Chowdhury and his colleagues compiled data on 1,758 species, about ten percent of all those known, from 105 countries. Analyses revealed that about 80 percent of the studied species had expanded their range, either between north and south or east and west, while 27 percent had shrunk their range. Many showed a combination of these shifts.

Most movement was caused by climate change and extreme weather events, the team found, though agriculture and habitat loss were also major drivers. In Germany, for instance, the cranberry fritillary butterfly has lost much of its habitat because of bog drainage, a process where peatland is turned into farmland. Meanwhile, in the United States, an invasive species of butterfly has led to the shrunken habitat of the mustard white.

These range shifts have also happened on different timescales. For example, the tawny coster, a species native the Indian subcontinent, entered Australia in 2012 and since then has been spreading at a rate of around 84 miles per year, Chowdhury tells Petra Stock at the Guardian. Other species, like the small blue, are experiencing change at a slower speed. The butterfly has lost 40 percent of its habitat in the United Kingdom over the last 150 years, Chowdhury and co-authors Aletta Bonn, an ecologist at the Helmholtz Centre for Environmental Research in Germany, and Jonathan Lenoir, an ecologist at the Université de Picardie Jules Verne in France, write for the Conversation.

“We’ve known that butterflies are shifting their ranges in response to climate change, but this is the first study to present evidence across such a large geographic and taxonomic scale,” says Candace Fallon, a conservation biologist at the Xerces Society for Invertebrate Conservation who was not involved in the work, to Annie Roth at the New York Times.

The researchers also point out that there are discrepancies in studies and monitoring of butterflies in some regions. “One of the most striking insights is how much evidence we were missing,” Chowdhury says in the statement.

Central Africa, Southeast Asia, New Guinea and the Amazon Basin are under-represented in data despite being biodiversity hotspots where butterflies are already living close to their upper thermal limits. That’s why the study calls for an expansion of biodiversity monitoring, including citizen science approaches. Without coordinated global efforts, scientists might fail to detect the early signs of biodiversity collapse, particularly in regions and among species with little data, the authors write in the paper.

Chris Grinter, senior collection manager of entomology at the California Academy of Sciences who was not involved in the study, echoes that sentiment to the Times. For those who want to play a role in butterfly conservation, he suggests planting native trees, letting lawns grow and documenting butterfly sightings on citizen science platforms like iNaturalist.

“A lot of impact can be made in your backyard,” he says.

Sara Hashemi is a science writer and fact-checker currently based in New York City. Her work has appeared in Sierra, The Body, Maisonneuve magazine and more.