We have quite a few butterfly resources. But this deserves a place. The Butterfly Guide is subtitled A Pocket Manual for the Ready Identification of the Commoner Species Found in the United States and Canada.
This pocket guide covers 255 butterfly species “in their natural colors.” It is a smaller pocket-type reference version of the same author’s larger work.
The book begins with the scientific classification of butterflies. Then covers butterfly anatomy, including the different types of wings a butterfly has.
The lifecycle is covered with illustrations of butterfly eggs and chrysalis.
You will learn how to collect and mount butterflies, should you choose to do so. (We always took pictures.)
Then comes the larger portion of the guide book — the butterflies themselves. The color plates help you identify a variety of butterflies from each genus.
They are helpfully classified by family:
- The Nymphalidæ, or “Brush-footed Butterflies.”
- The Erycinidæ, or “Metal-marks.”
- The Lycænidæ, or “Blues,” “Coppers,” and “Hair-streaks.”
- The Papilionidæ, or the “Swallowtails” and their allies.
- The Hesperiidæ, or the “Skippers.”
The guide provides the relative size and markings along with the color illustration. Some are checkered spotted; others crescent spotted. Some have angle-wings others eye-spots.
Common names are provided in the index.
Helpful guide for the butterfly enthusiast! And free!
Free eBook
Suggestions
Have your students do one or more of the following:
- Make a butterfly notebook, of course!
- The images are all available through the “various formats” link above by right-clicking and printing. Alternatively, some will enjoy drawing or illustrating their pages.
- Along with the illustration include brief narration of the identifying facts.
- If you spot one, add it to your notebook with the date and location. What type of flowers or vegetation is nearby?
- Start a butterfly garden.
- Raise butterflies!
Additional Resources
Coloring Book
One of Dover’s nature coloring books featuring “fact-filled captions” and the butterflies in their natural habitats.
Free Nature Studies: Butterflies & Moths
Butterflies live very short lives, progressing from egg, to caterpillar, to chrysalis, to butterfly. Unit resources.
Keep Reading
Activity: Monarch Butterfly Study
One of the best ways to become interested in butterflies is to study them.
Butterflies Worth Knowing ~ Free eBook
Study of butterflies, transformations, habitats, and identification resources.
Bowles, William Lisle: “The Butterfly and the Bee”
Methought I heard a butterfly Say to a labouring bee:…. Poetry study.