Abstract:An inventory of the high plateau region of South Gansu Province in China revealed 339 butterfly species belonging to 12 families and 157 genera. The majority of species (192; 56.6%) are widely distributed, while 91 species (26.9%) are typical for the Palaearctic and further 56 (16.5%) are Oriental species. 15 Parnassius species were recorded, which is a comparably large fraction (36.6%) of all 41 Parnassius species in China. Transect inventories across the major altitudinal vegetation zones covering the alpine sub-ice-snow and sparse vegetation zone, sub-alpine shrub-meadow zone, mountain forest and grassland zone, and hilly grassland zone showed that Parnassius species appear in all zones. The vertical distribution of Parnassius species was Interesting because species richness and Shannon-Wiener diversity indicated contrary trends for Parnassius and total butterfly communities along the altitudinal gradient. While species richness and diversity of Parnassius increased with altitude, these measures decreased for total butterfly communities. Yet, Parnassius can be considered as a typical genus for alpine regions in China. The most common species in the regions were P. imperator, P. epaphus and P. nomion. In the whole study area, eight species, including P. cephalus, were particularly rare and future viability of their populations might deserve particular attention.