Abstract: The role of butterflies in the ecological environment was analyzed in order to evaluate the relationships between butterfly species distribution and different habitats. Five primary habitats (evergreen coniferous forest, shrubs, deciduous broad-leaved forest, dry field, orchards) in southern Shanxi Province were selected through the study of the stratified random sampling, and the butterfly species were identified and the species number was statistically analyzed. A total of 4 242 individuals were collected in the study, representing 101 species in 65 genera of 5 families. The community diversity of butterflies in the study area was analyzed by Shannon-Wiener diversity index, Pielou evenness index, Simpson dominance index and Margalef richness index, spatial niche breadth and niche overlap index of butterflies were calculated. The results show that the variation tendency of diversity index among butterfly families was Nymphalidae (3.174) > Lycaenidae (1.924) > Pieridae (1.630) > Hesperiidae (1.420) > Papilionidae (1.146). The variation trend of butterfly diversity index among different habitats was shrub (7.915) > deciduous broad-leaved forest (7.645) > evergreen coniferous forest (7.622) > orchard (6.904) > dry field (5.684). It indicated that butterfly species diversity was obviously different between different habitats. The spatial niche width of every butterfly family had no obvious difference (above 0.6), and the spatial niche overlap index between each 2 butterfly families had no obvious difference as well (above 0.9). It indicated that different butterfly families had no obvious difference on the occupied spatial resources.