Smilar species list

[Dave McCormick]

could someone help me out? I am creating a website on butterflies and moths of the world and have a similar species part and need to know all similar species (anywhere in world) of:

Small Tortoiseshell, Painted Lady, Red Admerial, Small Copper, Twenty-Plume Moth, Silver Y Moth

I have all these under similar species to small tortoiseshell, missing any?

Yellow Legged Tortoiseshell (Nymphalis Xanthomelas), Large Tortoiseshell (Nymphalis Polychloros), Corsican Small Tortoiseshell (Aglais Ichnusa), California Tortoiseshell (Nymphalis californica), Milbert Tortoiseshell (Aglais milberti), Compton Tortoiseshell (Nymphalis vau-album)

any help would be great. Thanks in advance

[Lance]

Wow dave that's a good project. Can,t help with tortoishell's but let us kno when your site is up and running

[Padfield]

You need access to Bernard d'Abrera's Butterflies of the World, in 20 volumes (many of the volumes are out of date, taxonomically, but their coverage is still unrivalled). I don't suppose many public libraries stock these, but I know all volumes can be found in the Cambridge University Library, the Bodleian Library and the British Library (because these three libraries are constitutionally bound to have every book published in English, including the pop-up Kama Sutra, which is worth digging out if you do 'pop in' to one of them). Alternatively, you can buy them at around £150 per volume, if you have £3000 burning a hole in your pocket. I have often browsed these books and even been tempted to go for the three volumes covering the Holarctic, but never had the spare cash.

For the Palearctic, there is Bonzano's series, 'Guide to the Butterflies of the Palearctic Region'. I own 'Lycaenidae part I', which covers the coppers and allies, and which alone might make you despair at the idea of documenting all similar species to the small copper!! These volumes come in at over £30 each so the entire series is also out of reach of most of us.

There are also websites with fairly comprehensive coverage of world butterflies, but none that I know of with pictures of all species.

I think your project would terrify me, but I'm easily scared (by hard work). I quite understand your interest, though. I have many field guides to the butterflies of other parts of the world and one of the great pleasures is spotting the relationships to our own species. American guides are excellent for this, though many of them insist on using common names against the pictures so you have to check the text to see if your guess is right.

Guy

[Dave McCormick]

I wont have £3000 for a long time. I use leps.it for alot, but some similar species live in other parts of world to.

[Dave McCormick]

OK, I have on my site a page that distinguishes species so a understanding of similar species can be made, here is an example:

I have already shown what Apollo butterflies look like by showing:

Banded Apollo
Varnished Apollo
Common Red Aapollo

Here is how this section of my site works:

Main page text:

Butterflies and Moths are classified under certain family names and genus. This is because even through they all have the same features and attributes, they don't all look similar, but some do. To understand this, I have made an identification key below.

Butterflies

Butterflies have nearly all the same attributes and distinctions. They feed during the day on nectar, most are brightly coloured and most pupate above ground (some don't, some only pupate on ground etc...) Most have clubbed antennae, but some don't. Nearly all are day fliers. Click a link to continue.

Skippers

Blues, Coppers and Hairstreaks

Whites and Yellows

Swallowtails

Apollo's

Fritillaries

Snout Butterflies

Browns, Satyrs and Ringlets.

Swallowtails

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Moths

Butterflies have nearly all the same attributes and distinctions. They feed during the day on nectar, most are brightly coloured and most pupate above ground (some don't, some only pupate on ground etc...) Most have clubbed antennae, but some don't. Click a link to continue.

Hawkmoths

Hook-Tip Moths

Geometer Moths

Swallow-Tailed Moths

Burnets

Bagworm Moths

Browns, Satyrs and Ringlets.

Swallowtails

Micro Moths


(this is an unfinished page)

and here is a sub page, skippers:

Skippers

There is a debate going on, whether or not skippers are butterflies. Some classify skippers as their own genus e.g. Moth, Butterfly, Skipper. I believe these butterflies are the descendants of the ancient butterflies that roamed the skies millions of years ago.

Although they sort of look like butterflies, they lack the clubbed antennae of butterflies and they fold their wings half up. They tend to have fattish-plump bodies like that of moths. Skippers can be identified by their fast darty flights, and a lot only come out at dusk. Here is a diagram of a Brazilian skipper to show you the features of a skipper:

(Set image of a Brazilian Skipper that shows features)

Image is of a set Brazilian Skipper. This is what typical skippers look like, or similar.

Large robust head: Skippers are known because they have larger more robust heads with bugger eyes than most other butterflies.

Curved Antennae: Skippers have curved or "hooked" antennae and this separates them from other butterfly species as they have clubbed antennae. Only a few skippers have clubbed antennae.

Large plump body: This species of butterfly is unique because a lot of this family have larger plump bodies, most butterfly bodies are thinner than this.

What do you think? Helps a lot of people even if they don't know the exact type of lep, but they will now what to classify it under.

As for similar species, I find moths are harder to find, but butterflies are easier depeiding on what ones you want similar species.

[Sooty]

could someone help me out? I am creating a website on butterflies and moths of the world and have a similar species part and need to know all similar species (anywhere in world) of:

Small Tortoiseshell, Painted Lady, Red Admerial, Small Copper, Twenty-Plume Moth, Silver Y Moth

Hi Dave,

The Australian Painted Lady (Vanessa kershawi) is very similar to V. cardui.....