Insect biogeography is poorly documented globally, particularly in the tropics. Recent intensive research in tropical Asia, combined with increasingly available records from citizen science, provides an opportunity to map the distributions of tropical Asian butterflies. We compiled a dataset of 730,190 occurrences of 3,752 tropical Asian butterfly species by aggregating records from GBIF (651,285 records), published literature (27,217), published databases (37,695), and unpublished data (13,993). Here, we present this dataset and single-species distribution maps of 1,576 species. Using these maps, along with records of the 2,176 remaining species, we identified areas of limited sampling (e.g., Myanmar and New Guinea) and predicted areas of high diversity (Peninsular Malaysia and Borneo). This dataset can be leveraged for a range of studies on Asian and tropical butterflies, including 1) species biogeography, 2) sampling prioritization to fill gaps, 3) biodiversity hotspot mapping, and 4) conservation evaluation and planning. We encourage the continued development of this dataset and the associated code as a tool for the conservation of tropical Asian insects.

Animal Biology Division Institute of Biological Sciences University of the Philippines Los Baños Laguna 4031 Philippines

Biodiversity Society 49 1 Babar Road Dhaka 1207 Bangladesh

bioSEA Pte Ltd 68 Chestnut Avenue Singapore 679521 Singapore

Center for Integrative Conservation and Yunnan Key Laboratory for the Conservation of Tropical Rainforests and Asian Elephants Xishuangbanna Tropical Botanical Garden Chinese Academy of Sciences Mengla Yunnan China

Czech University of Life Sciences Prague Faculty of Environmental Sciences Prague Czech Republic

Department of Biology City College of New York City University of New York 160 Convent Avenue New York New York NY 10031 USA

Department of Life Sciences National Cheng Kung University Tainan City Taiwan

Entomology Section National Museum of Natural History Rizal Park Manila 1000 Philippines

Faculty of Sustainable Agriculture Universiti Malaysia Sabah Locked Bag No 3 90509 Sandakan Sabah Malaysia

Insect Ecology Group Department of Zoology University of Cambridge Cambridge CB2 3EJ UK

Leverhulme Centre for Anthropocene Biodiversity Department of Biology University of York York YO10 5DD UK

Moore Center for Science and Solutions Conservation International Arlington VA USA

National Centre for Biological Sciences GKVK Campus Bellary Road Bengaluru 560065 India

Nature Society Singapore 510 Geylang Road Singapore 389466 Singapore

PhD Program in Biology City University of New York 365 5th Avenue New York NY 10016 USA

Royal Botanic Gardens Royal Botanic Gardens Kew UK

School of Biological Sciences Monash University Clayton Victoria 3168 Australia

School of Biological Sciences The University of Hong Kong Pokfulam Hong Kong China

School of Biosciences University of Melbourne Parkville Melbourne Australia

School of Ecology Shenzhen Campus of Sun Yat sen University Shenzhen 518107 China

Science Department Natural History Museum London SW7 5BD UK

Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute Apartado 0843 03092 Balboa Ancon Panama

The University of Toronto Scarborough 1265 Military Trail Scarborough ON M1C 1A4 Canada

Vietnam National Museum of Nature Vietnam Academy of Science and Technology 18 Hoang Quoc Viet Cau Giay Ha Noi Vietnam

Yunnan Key Laboratory of Forest Ecosystem Stability and Global Change Response Xishuangbanna Tropical Botanical Garden Chinese Academy of Sciences Mengla Yunnan China

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