What's newButterflies
A total of 219 species of butterflies are currently (May 2025) known to occur in the Waterberg and a list of these can be downloaded here. The same list is reproduced below, where species are grouped together in their families and listed there in alphabetic order. The scientific and common names used in this list follow the most recent list issued by the Lepidopterists' Society of Africa (LepSoc Africa).
About 150 species have been photographed so far in the Waterberg and these photographed species have an 
icon alongside the species' name. If you click on a name, its page opens and shows photographs of the species that have been taken in the Waterberg, together with a map that show its currently recorded distribution here. The maps have drawn on distributional information recorded in the now-terminated Butterfly Virtual Museum, from LepSoc records, from recordings in iNaturalist and from in-house observations.
Composites of photographs of species in each of the five families, Nymphalidae, Lycaenidae, Pieridae, Papilionidae, Hesperiidae can be viewed by clicking on the family name. Because the photographic record is incomplete, one can also search for a species on the downloadable PDF which illustrates all the Waterberg species, male and female, from above and below, this generously provided to us by the late Mark Williams.
Most of the Waterberg's butterflies are widespread savanna species but there are two endemics with very restricted ranges, the Waterberg Sunset Copper Erikssonia edgei (critically endangered) and the Kransberg Widow Dingana jerinae (least concern). Two others are near-endemic to the Waterberg, the Nkosi Acraea Tildia barberae and the Sekukune Shadefly Coenyra rufiplaga. Both of these are ranked as 'least concern'.
Waterberg target species (red-listed and/or endemic) are highlighted inred. RC = requires confirmation.
Reference: Mecenero et al. 2013. Conservation assessment of butterflies of South Africa, Lesotho and Swaziland: Red list and atlas. Saftronics, Johannesburg & Animal Demography Unit, Cape Town.