"Butterflies of America" 2011

[Nick Grishin]

Dear Friends and Colleagues:

With the passing of another year, it is time to reflect on accomplishments 
and look into the future. "Butterflies of America" is a non-profit 
organization with the mission to spread knowledge about butterflies 
largely by means of the BOA website, which currently is an archive of over 
150,000 images showing specimens, live butterflies, their immatures, 
foodplants and habitats:

http://www.butterfliesofamerica.com/

Our main efforts are focused on the following:

1) The original, North American butterfly list (which also includes all of 
Central America and the Caribbean) is being expanded with daily additions:
http://www.butterfliesofamerica.com/list.htm
Images are included for essentially all taxa, and most show live butterflies
alongside museum specimens.


2) A very exciting development is the inclusion of South American 
butterflies. Thanks to the generosity of many people and organizations, we 
are now able to present a preliminary illustrated listing of the South 
American taxa:
http://www.butterfliesofamerica.com/L/Neotropical.htm

We are currently in the final stages of unifying the North and South 
American lists and image archives, to present All-America butterfly pages 
in a single list. This list, for convenience broken by family, will 
include over 15,000 taxa, many illustrated.

Now, "Butterflies of America" measures up to its name: both continents are 
included, and nowhere else you will find anything like it! True, there are 
many "holes" in the current Neotropical list, both in terms of species 
coverage by images, and updating the list itself to fully include recent 
developments since the publication of the Lamas (2004) catalogue. Addition 
of English names, distribution maps and other various technical 
developments are also planned.


3) The Pelham catalogue, which is dedicated to nomenclature and taxonomy 
of American butterflies north of Mexico, and is currently the standard in 
the field, is maintained at BOA:
http://www.butterfliesofamerica.com/US-Can-Cat-1-30-2011.htm

Traditionally, such catalogues have been published only on paper and used 
for many years despite taxonomic advances, discovery of new species and 
adding new records. This changed with the on-line version of the Pelham 
catalogue. For instance the latest version was revised on November 27, 
2011 to reflect corrections and new discoveries. It is a living, breathing 
entity that can be modified any time an omission is found, or consensus 
emerges about North American butterfly taxa that calls for rearrangements. 
The catalogue is cross-linked with the BOA thumbnail pages to give users 
quick and convenient access to butterfly images. The most recent addition 
to the list was the Pink-spot Sulphur (Aphrissa neleis): 
http://www.butterfliesofamerica.com/aphrissa_neleis.htm

If you use our work and value our efforts, please consider making a 
contribution; all your donations are 100% tax deductible, and this 
end-of-the-year holiday season is a great time to help:

http://www.butterfliesofamerica.com/donate.htm

Butterflies of America is a labor of love, please support us, and we will 
continue "broadcasting" the lists, images and the catalogue for everyone 
to access and study any time.

Happy Holidays,
                      Andy Warren, Jim Brock, Kim Davis,
                      Nick Grishin, Jonathan Pelham and Mike Stangeland













> Guys, sorry for being late with this, I just was able to finish
> unification of North and South American pages, which is a good thing to
> show off. There are a few bugs there, the worst ones I will eliminate
> later today. Here is a draft of the text that after your changes we should
> post on lists ASAP. Thanks!!! n
>
>
> =====================================================================
>
> A year has passed and here we are again. It is time to reflect on
> accomplishments and look into the future. "Butterflies of America" is a
> non-profit organization with the mission to spread knowledge about
> butterflies largely by means of the BOA website, which currently is an
> image archive of over 150,000 photographs showing specimens, live
> butterflies, their immatures, foodplants and habitats:
> http://www.butterfliesofamerica.com/
>
> Our main efforts are focused on the following:
>
> 1) The original, North American butterfly list is being worked on with
> daily additions:
> http://www.butterfliesofamerica.com/list.htm
> Essentially all taxa are covered by images, and most show live butterflies
> alongside with museum specimens.
>
>
> 2) One of the most exciting developments is the inclusion of South
> American butterflies. Indeed, what we dreamed about yesterday is reality
> today.
> http://www.butterfliesofamerica.com/L/Neotropical.htm
>
> We just unified North and South American lists and image archives, to
> present All-America butterfly pages. This list, for convenience broken by
> family, reports over 15,000 taxa, and many are illustrated. Check it out!
> These pages came live today!!! E.g.
> http://www.butterfliesofamerica.com/L/Papilionidae.htm
> http://www.butterfliesofamerica.com/L/t/Papilio_polyxenes_a.htm
>
> Complete list of all families is also available, but it is very long and
> takes a while to download:
> http://www.butterfliesofamerica.com/L/All.htm
>
> Now, "Butterflies of America" measures up to its name: both continents are
> included, and nowhere else you will find anything like it! True, there are
> many "holes" in the list, both in terms of species coverage by images, and
> updating the list itself to fully include recent developments since
> publication of Lamas-2004 catalogue. Addition of English names,
> distribution maps and other various technical developments are planned.
>
>
> 3) The Pelham catalogue, which is dedicated to nomenclature and taxonomy
> of American butterflies north of Mexico, and is currently the standard in
> the field, is maintained at BOA:
> http://www.butterfliesofamerica.com/US-Can-Cat-1-30-2011.htm
>
> Traditionally, such catalogues have been published only on paper and used
> for many years despite taxonomic advances, discovery of new species and
> adding new records. It all changed with the on-line version of the Pelham
> catalogue. For instance the latest version has been revised on November
> 27, 2011 to reflect corrections and newest finds. It is a living breathing
> entity that can be modified any time an omission is found, or consensus
> emerges about the North American Butterfly taxa that calls for
> rearrangements. The most recent additions to the list was Pink-Spot
> Sulphur (*Aphrissa neleis*):
> http://www.butterfliesofamerica.com/aphrissa_neleis.htm
> The catalogue is cross-linked with the BOA thumbnail pages to give users
> quick and convenient access to butterfly images.
>
> If you use our work and value our efforts, please contribute, all your
> donations are 100% tax deductible, and this end-of-the-year holiday season
> is a great time to help:
> http://www.butterfliesofamerica.com/donate.htm
>
> Butterflies of America is a labor of love, please vote for us, and we will
> continue "broadcasting" the lists, images and the catalogue for everyone
> to access and study any time.
>
> Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays,
>
>                      Andy Warren, Jim Brock, Kim Davis,
>                      Nick Grishin, Jonathan Pelham and Mike Stangeland
>
>


 
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