There is a new Butterflies of America website!!!
This website was a hot topic at today's monthly butterfly club meeting. Everyone says this is the gold standard of butterfly websites. Anything and everything you wanted to know is on one website. I've only browsed through a few pages and can happily say that what I've seen is absolutely wonderful!!! Great photos of the butterfly, caterpillar and larval host plants. AWESOME!!!
~ Cat
The post below was taken directly from the Texas List Server:
Everyone,
On behalf of the authors and advisors of “butterfliesofamerica” (see below), it is a great honor and pleasure for me to present:
http://butterfliesofamerica.com/
http://butterfliesofamerica.com/intro.htm
Our aim is to develop a comprehensive online resource devoted to American butterflies, that will include information on the geographic distribution, geographic variation, taxonomy, systematics, identification, ecology (including larval foodplants and immature biology) and bibliography for all butterfly taxa in the region, including all species, subspecies and undescribed geographic segregates.
Please see the Interactive Listing of American Butterflies:
http://butterfliesofamerica.com/list.htm
At this time, the Interactive Listing of American Butterflies includes about 2938 species and just over 5000 subspecies (and undescribed segregates) of butterflies, occurring from Alaska and arctic Canada through Panama, Hawaii, and on the Caribbean Islands (excluding Trinidad, Tobago, and islands off the Venezuelan coast). Within a few months, distributional information will be completed for all taxa (currently lacking for some, mostly Nearctic butterflies), and many more images will be added.
The authors of Butterflies of America are:
Andrew Warren, Kim Davis, Jon Pelham and Mike Stangeland:
http://butterfliesofamerica.com/authors.htm
Our Board of Advisors includes:
Jim Brock, Kenn Kaufman, Bob Pyle:
http://butterfliesofamerica.com/advisors_general.htm
George Austin, Andrew Brower, Nick Grishin, Paul Opler:
http://butterfliesofamerica.com/advisors-scientific.htm
Charles Bordelon, Bill Bouton, Jan Dauphin, Kim Garwood, Ed Knudson, Jeff Pippen, David Robacker and Todd Stout:
http://butterfliesofamerica.com/advisors_content.htm
As of today (2 May 2008), we have posted over 15,000 images of butterfly adults, immatures, larval foodplants and habitats to the site, all donated by about 90 generous and talented photographers. For each butterfly taxon in the area covered, we aim to eventually include images of pinned and live adults, immature stages, larval foodplants and habitats, as well as complete synonymies (taken from Pelham 2008 for taxa occurring in the USA and Canada), and specific bibliographies.
Here are a few examples of “complete” presentations, which we hope to prove for all 5000+ taxa over the next few years:
Westerny Pygmy-Blue
http://butterfliesofamerica.com/brephidium_e_exilis.htm
Hackberry Emperor
http://butterfliesofamerica.com/asterocampa_celtis_antonia.htm
Tawny Emperor
http://butterfliesofamerica.com/asterocampa_clyton_louisa.htm
Crimson-patch Checkerspot
http://butterfliesofamerica.com/chlosyne_j_janais.htm
Pale-banded Crescent
http://butterfliesofamerica.com/anthanassa_tulcis.htm
This is a long-term project that depends largely on users for feedback and growth; we are always seeking to add images to our photo collections, even for taxa already well documented. If you have excellent photos of pinned or live adults, immature stages of any species, or larval foodplants and habitats, we encourage you to submit them! All contributions are greatly appreciated! See the following page for more information on contributing images:
http://butterfliesofamerica.com/photo_contributions.htm
The authors and advisors of Butterfliesofamerica.com hope that you will find our site useful, and that you will contribute what you can to make this a comprehensive resource on the butterflies of America, a site that will benefit everyone, and hopefully, the butterflies!
Thank you and enjoy!
Best wishes,
Andy
www.butterfliesofamerica.com
Andrew D. Warren, PhD
215 McGuire Hall
McGuire Center for Lepidoptera and Biodiversity
Florida Museum of Natural History
University of Florida
SW 34th Street and Hull Road
P. O. Box 112710
Gainesville, FL 32611-2710
Museo de Zoología “Alfonso L. Herrera”
Departamento de Biología Evolutiva
Facultad de Ciencias
Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México
Apdo. Postal 70-399
México, DF 04510 México
This message was edited May 3, 2008 6:45 PM
