Abstract: Based on vegetation, altitude, climate and soil of the northern slopes of Qilian Mountains and Hexi Corridor, the habitats of butterflies were classified into five types. The butterflies faunal composition and trait of vertical distribution were surveyed, in addition to an analysis of diversity of butterfly communities in different habitat types. Butterfly communities consisted of 128 species belonging to 74 genera in 8 families, and the diversity index decreased in the order: Mountain forest steppe, mountain steppe, subalpine shrub meadow, corridor oases and wilderness, and alpine sparse vegetation, which are consistent with richness but not completely with evenness index. The combination of the Shannon-Wiener index and G-F index provides a comprehensive measure to evaluate community diversity. Furthermore, the lower coefficients of species similarity among different habitats has been found.