The 30 Most Beautiful Insects in the World

Mourning Cloak Butterfly

Mourning Cloak butterflies boast a stunning combination of colors and patterns.
iStock.com/Anatoliy Berislavskiy

Since no list of the prettiest insects would be complete without butterflies and moths, the butterfly on this list is the mourning cloak. Found in North America and Eurasia, this gorgeous butterfly looks like no other. The top of its wings is a velvety dark maroon. The edges are ragged and edged with what looks like gold leaf. There are iridescent blue spots between the maroon and the gold. The underside of the wings is filled with striations of gray, and the golden edges of the wings are visible. Males and females are alike.

The mourning cloak is one of the longest-lived of the butterflies and can live as long as a year. One reason for this is that they hibernate in the winter, which gives them an advantage. Sometimes mourning cloaks emerge from hibernation even before all the snow has melted. They don’t so much take nectar from flowers as they drink the sap, the liquid from rotting fruit, and honeydew from aphids.