Cathy,

First thing your friend has to do is get a photo for documentation. Visual sightings are not accepted. Then check to see if you have a local lep organization. Just google your state and "lepidoptera". They will take down the information and the name of the person, and they should accept a digital picture--ours does. If you don't find an organization, post again, and I'll check with our group person. He would probably know.

Good luck,

Sandy

Great question Cathy, and an important one that is often misunderstood.

There are species that are pretty hard to confuse with any other by someone with even only basic taxonomy knowledge. But a problem with "sightings" actually being accepted as a proof positive life history record to the professional Lepidopteran community is that they are no better than the person making the sighting. IOW, by default they can not generally be accepted without confirmation except in rare cases unless the person who made the sighting is recognized as qualified and documented in the particular family of Lepidoptera the sighting was made of. Even more so if a species or subspecies that the exact determination of can not easily be made without the specimen physically in hand. And even "in hand" can be treated as speculative until sp/ssp determination is confirmed by a qualified Lepidopterist with a level of trust in the person who collected it actually collecting it where stated. Yes, there are even recognized lep researchers who cheat on records to satisfy their own ego or improve their status in the lep community. It just has to be that way for scientific purposes and to be widely accepted as a confirmed record. An exception would be when participating in an organized field project, like annual butterfly counts for example, where recognized lepidopterists instruct hobbyists on species determinations of those species they anticipate will be encountered on that project. Its easy enough for a hobbyist to put a net on a specimen to show to one of the organizers, and released after a determination is made.

That said, hobbyist and amateur lepidopterists often make new life history discoveries that do pan out once confirmed. So it is very desirable that you do report your findings to someone in the professional community. Often there is a local or state lep society or natural history museum they could be reported to. A good choice as being local they can more easily try to confirm what you report. But with the advent of the Internet, almost any professional lepidopterists, lep society or museum can now be easily contacted. The Lepidopterists Society is a good choice as they are international, have a large membership and may be able to refer you to a member that is local to you, or a member that specializes in the family/species in question.

Bottom line, a specimen in hand has a much better chance of being accepted than just a sighting does.

HTH,

Larry

Cathy,

You can go to the www.naba.org website to report your sighting and include a photo. You can also ask Mike Reese if it is a new record for your location.

Just click on the left side legend for "recent sightings" or send email directly to sightings@naba.org and include a resized photo. They post rare sightings in the "Hot Seens" section of the American Butterflies magazine and if so, Jeff Glassberg or Mike Reese might ask that you email the uncropped and unresized photo.

You can also see if you have a local NABA chapter in your area and contact them with your sighting.

~ Cat

Sandy, I sort of thought that visual sightings wouldn't be accepted or else anyone could say it, huh.

Larry, I really appreciate your going into all of that detail. Good grief, I would have hoped that professional Lepidopterists could be trusted to accurately report things, but I guess that's not always the case just because of egos. That's too bad.

I can certainly understand why a person reporting a sighting would have to have more proof than his/her just saying so. I'm hoping that my friend can get a picture of it and that it would be acceptable. He said he wouldn't catch it and take a chance of killing it just to prove to someone that it's around, so I guess if a picture isn't good enough, then it will remain a mystery. Who knows, maybe I'll even discover a new one here someday and will be able to use that information that you've provided. I'm no expert at all, but at least when I see something different, I'll try to get a picture of it and try to ID it. My friend was driving and I understand people don't usually take their cameras in their car with them.

Cat, I'll tell me friend what you said also. I hope that he really did see one, but if it doesn't show up any more where he saw it, then I guess we'll never know if it really was a Palamedes Swallowtail.

Thanks to all of you for your input!

Cathy

Butterfliesandmoths.org, the website of Butterflies and Moths of North America, now accepts photos to verify reports. Species are listed by state and county, and the database is searchable by location, taxonomic group, species or picture. Each state has a coordinator which will verify the species and add the record to your county.

I recently reported about two dozen species that had not previously been listed in my county in Alabama. The state coordinator was very nice, very helpful and very encouraging.

The link below goes to the FAQ page describing how to contact your state coordinator to report a sighting.
geni

Here is a link that might be useful: How to report a sighting

Cathy, last fall I spotted an unusual skipper in my backyard..I was relaxing late in the afternoon, with a nice glass of cabernet...anyways..I took a few pictures and submitted them here. A few of you southerners confirmed my suspicion of it being a Brazilian skipper. Then i emailed the pictures and the story to my state record keeper at the Connecticut Butterfly Association...

He emailed them to a few others ( John Himmelman, Larry Wagner who are members of our group) and we established our first state record of a Brazilian Skipper.

It was fun and exciting.. we IDed it on the basis of my pictures, even though I had captured the poor guy and could have taken him as a specimen, I'm still glad I let him go.

Maryann

Cathy,

Report the sighting anyway - even if you don't have a photo. Chances are someone else in the vicinity may see it too or at least now you'll have eyes looking for it.

We get rare sightings and new US records as well as new county records in south Texas but we have so many highly qualified lepidopterists here that if they don't see it for themselves they will question everything! We've all learned to carry our cameras everywhere :o)

Maryann,

Congrats on the Brazilian Skipper/new state record!!! WOW!!! To think one of those made it up that high. WOW!!!

They are such chunky butterflies - I love seeing those!!! They are big doozies!!!

I call them yard bugs :o) (meaning they are common for my yard) and they really leave the cannas in shreds but hey, that's why I plant cannas in the first place :o)

They are very territorial too - it's always fun to see males patrolling the area looking for females and of course, finding eggs on the canna leaves from the gravid females. Must say the caterpillars are ugly as ugly can be! Brrrrr...just thinking of them gives me the willies - they really are ugly with that see-through skin...blech!!!

I have cannas growing at the ends of my driveway and the skippers will flit back and forth at my car when I drive in and out of my garage :o)

~ Cat

Cat, the only reason I noticed the skipper was because of the size and the way he/she flew around the backyard... Like a shot, darting about. He was in love with my dipladenia/mandevilla and kept diving into the flowers. That's how I trapped him..in a flower. I transferred him to a cat raising aquarium..but he nearly beat himself to death in there so I had to let him go. Needless to say..he never came back due to the harrassment.

I always try to keep my cheap digital with me always...At least you can get a shot with good ID marks.

Maryann