Saturday, July 16, 2011

Audubon Butterflies

imageAudubon Butterflies — A Field Guide to  North American Butterflies

From Green Mountain Digital

About the app

Audubon Butterflies is your essential guide to the butterflies of North America. Now you can identify every species in your backyard, parks, gardens, or the woods or fields with

in-depth descriptions of over 600 butterflies found in North America updated by Rick Cech, the world’s foremost butterfly expert, over 3,000 beautiful color photographs detailing each species with extraordinary clarit, and advanced search options allow easy identification of butterflies

All guides feature professional color photographs, in-depth descriptions of each species, fast and easy navigation, state-of-the-art search functions, real time availability, lifelists, sightings and photo albums.  Each guide features photographs, lifelists, descriptions, sightings, a reference as well as a search to allow you to identify easily the butterfly you have spot. 

image  image image

My Thoughts

IMG_7949My 5 years old son, Jérémy, has spotted a “bug” the other day.    I decided to try to identify it using one of the Audubon apps I received to review.   First, I needed to catch it.  Fortunately, we had one of those bugs viewers from Dollarama.   Once the bug in the bug viewer, I brought it inside the house so we can get a better view of it.   The wings were brown and you could see a metallic blue body as well as an orange head.   

I initially thought it was a bug.  My husband kept saying it was a moth.   So I opened up the bug app and proceed to do a search of a brown bug in the Eastern area.   Some bugs came out but nothing was identical of the one we found.  Could my husband be right?   I did the same search on the butterfly app and discovered that our “bug” was indeed a moth…  More specifically a Virginia Ctenuchid Moth (Ctenucha virginica)!IMG_7954

DESCRIPTION - Wingspan 1 3/8-2" (35-50 mm). Wings dark olive-brown, partly fringed with white. Body metallic blue-green. Head orange-yellow. Antennae feathery. Caterpillar, to 1" (25 mm), is yellowish tan and has many tufts of short white hair.
HABITAT - Wet meadows.
RANGE - Northeastern United States and adjacent Canada, south to North Carolina coast.
DISCUSSION - The southeastern states harbor the similar Brown Ctenuchid (C. brunnea), same size, which has orange marks resembling epaulets on its thorax, dark veins on somewhat paler olive-brown fore wings, and almost black hind wings. Additional species, mostly with yellow veins on the fore wings, occur in the Southwest.
LIFE CYCLE - Caterpillar feeds primarily on grasses.

Do not worry, once identified we released the Virginia Ctenuchid Moth back in our lawn.   

The app is easy to use and a great tool to help you identify the butterflies that you might encounter while walking in the woods or spending time outdoors with your family.   Personally, I appreciate the fact that it is very easy to carry around as well.  No bulky books in a backpack, the information is at the tips of your fingers if you use an iPhone, iPod or iPad.   I remember the days where I brought nature books with me when I would go in the woods.   I use to be a girl guide and loved to identify the trees and plants around me.    I am also an amateur ornithologist and love to identify the birds we see.    With the Audubon Butterflies app, I can now discover the marvelous world of butterflies.   

This app is also perfect for homeschoolers everywhere.  Our decision of homeschooling doesn’t stop at Sept-June.   It goes on year long… mind you during the summer time, we don’t use books as much but we explore nature, fish, learn to identify bugs, butterflies, birds, and so on.    With an app like the Audubon Butterflies (and the other apps from Audubon), an homeschooler can expand their knowledge beyond what they can even imagine.   All it takes is a little bit of patience and willingness to go outdoors to find the creatures.

Audubon Butterflies is available for the price of 9.99$ on iTunes.

Disclaimer: I received the app for review purposes. I was not monetarily compensated for this review. Please note that the review was not influenced by the Sponsor in any way. All opinions expressed here are only my own.

No comments:

Post a Comment