Released June 10, 2009
MANHATTAN, Kan. – Butterfly fans who want to attract the flamboyant insects into a backyard setting or simply to conserve them in nature have rapidly been increasing in numbers for at least a decade.
“That’s fit nicely with a growing trend toward using insecticides only when absolutely necessary. Bees and butterflies both are benefiting from that,” horticulturist Ward Upham said. “But, I suspect some people have been surprised, if not discouraged, by how complicated the whole subject of butterflies is.”
Fortunately, several outstanding Web resources are available now to help butterfly fans find the localized information they need, Upham added. Finding and sharing the word about such resources is part of his job as Master Gardener program coordinator for Kansas State University Research and Extension.
“I particularly recommend two sites that are collecting and organizing searchable data and photos from an amazing array of reliable collections,” he said. “Neither one has a hidden agenda. Where they’re coming from pretty well guarantees that their only vested interest is clear, accurate, useful information.”
The host for each site is a state land-grant university – Montana State University and the University of Georgia, Upham explained. And, both sites’ primary financial support comes from a U.S. Geological Survey effort called the National Biological Information Infrastructure or NBII program.
The one Upham finds most widely useful is “Butterflies and Moths of North America,” found at http://www.butterfliesandmoths.org/. It lists all of the butterfly and moth species with verified sightings in the United States and Mexico. Its searchable database includes color photos, species data and increasingly specific distribution maps that go down to the county level.
“If you want to see which species have been officially sighted where you live, this is the place to go. Then, you can click on a name in your county list and find a whole page of information about the insect,” Upham said. “In other words, you don’t have to waste any time worrying about whether little white species that only live in other parts of the United States might be the species now inhabiting your yard.”
Each species page includes a photo. It provides the moth’s or butterfly’s family, subfamily, identification features, life history, adult flight time, wing span, adult food sources, caterpillar host plants, general habitat and range. It also includes the insect’s U.S. conservation status and its NatureServe global status.
Upham’s second recommendation, “Discover Life,” now has the Missouri Botanical Garden working with the University of Georgia to maintain its site. “Discover Life” also has grown to the point it’s operating under the auspices of a non-profit “think tank” called the Polistes Foundation. Its advisors span the globe.
“For many butterfly fans, the site’s most valuable tools will probably be the guides that help people identify a particular specimen -- even people with little to no training in entomology,” he said. “The guides ask you about general features you can see when looking at a sample from your yard.”
“Discover Life” also has already developed “IDnature” guides for arthropods, vertebrates and plants, Upham said. But, the guides that butterfly lovers should find most interesting are:
- http://www.discoverlife.org/mp/20q?guide=Butterflies
- http://www.discoverlife.org/mp/20q?guide=Caterpillars
“The butterfly guide, for example, starts by asking which group of pictured species your real-life sample probably belongs to. Then it asks you to make choices that indicate your sample’s similarity to pictured front wing curves, front wing edges, back wing edges, top wing colors and the like,” Upham said. “Just by indicating what you can see, you make real progress toward identifying what you’ve got.”
Sidebar: Butterfly Numbers? Who Knows?
MANHATTAN, Kan. – When butterfly species are the topic, no book or Web site can be totally correct.
The number of species is and probably will remain an unknown, according to the international Lepidopterists’ Society. Many species will become extinct before they’re ever discovered. Plus, new species are being discovered every year.
Even so, the society says the world total is “likely to be in the region of 18,000 to 21,000 species.” For the society’s Nearctic reporting area (Canada, United States, parts of northern Mexico), the “described species” totals are 775 butterflies and skippers and 10,850 moths.
Other sources can vary widely, but the North American Butterfly Association reports fairly similar numbers: 20,000 species worldwide with about 275 species occurring regularly in Canada, 575 known to show up in the 48 contiguous United States, and about 2,000 identified species in Mexico.
As these the association’s numbers suggest: In general, the more tropical the climate, the greater the number of resident butterflies.
Thus far, Lepidoptera – the order of scaly-winged insects that includes skippers and moths, as well as butterflies – includes 150,000 described species worldwide, with estimates that the actual number could be as high as 250,000 to 400,000. Beetles are the only insect group with a greater number of species.
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http://www.oznet.ksu.edu/ksrenews/story/butterfly_lovers061009.aspx
Contact: Ward Upham, 785-1438, wupham@ksu.edu
Writer: Kathleen Ward, kward@ksu.edu
