This site can and has proved to be difficult for the uninitiated. I intend that this introduction can remedy that. First of all, navigate to the site –

https://www.butterfliesofamerica.com/

There are four buttons (links) on the home page:

Introduction – explore authors and the website, a ‘spare time’ endeavor.

All America pages – this is where you will want to go; we will get back to it. And it means All Americas – North, South and Central.

Interactive List – this is an essentially antiquated (2012) link; don’t bother…unless your muse drives you!

Catalogue – this is my baby. It is an updated version of Pelham, 2008, current to 7 August 2020. It is technical but some may find it interesting.

Click on the All America button. You will see the six butterfly families across the top. You will need to click on the family of interest; so you will need to know butterfly families!

Let us, for example, click on ‘Papilionidae‘ – Swallowtails.

This is where a little ‘net-tech’ knowledge is very useful to search through the maze of names. PC users ctrl+F; Mac users Command+F. You will see a search box in the lower left. The authors at BOA use common names as well as scientific names so you can search either way. As an example, type ‘Western Tiger Swallowtail.’ This will take you to the link for that species, which you will need to click on.

This takes you to a page of images and you can link to each one but I never do. Instead, in the upper left there is a link in small type that takes you to a page where you can ‘pick and choose’ what image categories you would like to review: Type Specimens, Pinned Specimens, Live Adults, Immatures, and Habitats.

In our example, click on Live Adults photo collection Page 2, and enjoy!

There is one more thing I find useful and, again, it is a little ‘net-techy.’ I always ‘right click’ (on a PC) and open links to a new tab or new window. This has the advantage of letting you go back without having to back out of each link.

There is a wealth of imagery here! Museum specimens, live shots…etc. My conversations with people suggest that many have not been comfortable enough with the site to use it. I hope this ameliorates this problem. Have fun!

(Please note that photos on this website require written permission for re-use. So don’t just copy them.)

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