Abstract: The paper aims to define the resources and faunal composition of butterfly and provide conservation strategy for the diversity protection in Ailaoshan national nature reserve. By the line transect method, we carried out 12 elementary resource surveys in 5 different habitats of the reserve from April 2016 to October 2017. The results showed that: 5967 butterflies were observed, collected and classified into 133 species which belonged to 75 genera in 5 families; Nymphalidae was the largest family, followed by Pieridae and Lycaenidae; Zhangjiazhai had the laregest amount of genus and species of butterflies among the 5 different habitates; the diversity results also showed that: Nymphalidae and bufferzone Zhangjiazhai (A2) had higher species diversity, genus diversity, species richness; the similarity of butterflies among the 5 different habitats of Ailaoshan was low; faunal composition of butterfly in Ailaoshan was mainly composed of oriential species with 101 species which occupied 75.94%. 87% species and 73% individuals of butterfly distributing below altitude 1100 m also indicated evident vertical distribution of butterflies in Ailaoshan. There are obvious differences in butterfly diversity in different habitats, and the study lays a foundation for the observation of butterfly diversity at large scale.