Species that are locally abundant tend to be more widespread than species that are locally rare. However, the opposite relationship has recently been observed with extensive abundance data for Finnish butterflies collected by voluntary lepidopterist. We were concerned about the suitability of these data for studying the distribution—abundance relationship in Finnish butterflies. Thus, we reviewed Finnish mark—recapture studies that report data for butterfly density. In these data, we found a positive density—distribution relationship for butterflies. Our study supports the conclusion that the positive distribution—abundance relationship is a general pattern for butterflies.