Moths of North America/Butterflies of North America

Citation

Gilmour, R. (2000), "Moths of North America/Butterflies of North America", Online Information Review, Vol. 24 No. 5, pp. 401-411. https://doi.org/10.1108/oir.2000.24.5.401.9

This pair of Web sites provides distribution data, county checklists, descriptions, and photographs of hundreds of North American moths and butterflies. The sites are easy to navigate, and they maintain the high quality characteristic of USGS Internet resources. One of the strengths of these sites is that the information is browsable either by geography or taxonomy. From the main page viewers can go to the moth or butterfly fauna of a particular state or to a composite list of families for all of North America. County‐level checklists are also available. Individual species are listed in a taxonomic sequence, with icons indicating the presence of a picture or a textual species description. In the minimum cases, only a distribution map is present, but many species pages include information on food, life history, wingspan, diagnostic characters and conservation status. A bibliography is given for most species, listing both taxonomic treatments and more general reference works.

The majority of insect descriptions include photographs. These pictures are generally of museum specimens, so the wings are properly spread to allow maximum viewing of the upper wing surfaces. Unfortunately, under‐wing views are rarely available. Photographs of larvae are included on rare occasions, most often when the caterpillar is an agricultural pest. Pages of thumbnail images are available for quick identification of specimens. There are also FAQ documents listing additional resources for specimen identification and advising collectors how to proceed if they suspect that they have a county record for a species. Currently, the larger moths dominate the moth site, with the Sphingidae, Saturnia, and Noctuidae being best represented. The pages on this site often load slowly, but the quantity and depth of information make it worth the occasional wait. These sites make an excellent addition to a library’s “biology Internet resources” page and this is by no means a bad place to start if a patron shows up with a specimen to identify. It is recommended for both scientific and general libraries.