Color chart for butterflies ?

[Doug Yanega]

>At 02:46 PM 10/20/99 -0700, you wrote:
>>Anyone know of a standard color chart/color terminology for describing
>>butterfly colors ? If no clear standard, please feel welcome to mention your
>>preferred version and where this can be purchased.
>>~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
>>Norbert Kondla  P.Biol., RPBio.
>
>About 20 years ago I used a book I think was titled Methuen's Color book,
>or something like that (I'll have to check and find the proper title), to
>designate colors for some caterpillars. The
>book contained colored squares and each was designated by a number
>so providing anyone a direct reference for the colors used.

That's the problem with all of those standard color books, like Munsell's
and others. Unless I'm mistaken, all of them use codes and numbers, not
*unique verbal* identifiers. With my little Munsell's Soil Chart on my
desk, for example, I see that "reddish brown" is one of the most
restricted, but is still used for 6 distinct colors. Of course, given the
variability inherent in butterfly colors, it might not be terribly
inefficient to use a term like that, since "2.5YR 5/4" is not exactly
self-explanatory, and may be needlessly precise. Of course, the only
universal color schemes are those used by printers, e.g. RGB and CMYK, but
I'm not sure if any of the standard color books give RGB and CMYK values.

Peace,


Doug Yanega        Dept. of Entomology         Entomology Research Museum
Univ. of California - Riverside, Riverside, CA 92521
phone: (909) 787-4315 (standard disclaimer: opinions are mine, not UCR's)
                http://insects.ucr.edu/staff/yanega.html
  "There are some enterprises in which a careful disorderliness
        is the true method" - Herman Melville, Moby Dick, Chap. 82