Butterflies of Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil (Lepidoptera: Papilionoidea, Hesperioidea)

To infer on the accumulated knowledge of butterfly diversity of (Lepidoptera: Papilionoidea, Hesperioidea) from Rio Grande do Sul, we consulted studies related to bionomics, taxonomy and forest inventories; a total of 832 species and subspecies of butterflies have been recorded. After of 1970 butterflies studies increased almost exponentially, and the inventory the butterflies from 1990, the same time also showed an increase. Hesperiidae was the richest family, with 357 (42.90%) species and subspecies, followed by Nymphalidae with 227 (27.28%), Lycaenidae with 94 (11.30%), Riodinidae with 80 (9.62%), Pieridae with 43 (5.17%) and Papilionidae with 31 (3.73%). Amongst the physiographic regions, the Depressão Central presented 495 (59.50%) species and subspecies (larger richness) and the Encosta Superior do Nordeste 17 (2.04%) species and subspecies (lower richness). The distribution of inventories shows that there are still areas lacking butterfly data in Rio Grande do Sul.