Historic Butterfly Specimens in the UVM Zadock Thompson Natural History Collection Digitized for the Vermont Butterfly Atlas

Kent McFarland; Bryan Pfeiffer

doi:10.15468/8uvger

Historic Butterfly Specimens in the UVM Zadock Thompson Natural History Collection Digitized for the Vermont Butterfly Atlas

Citation

McFarland K, Pfeiffer B (2022). Historic Butterfly Specimens in the UVM Zadock Thompson Natural History Collection Digitized for the Vermont Butterfly Atlas. Vermont Center for Ecostudies. Occurrence dataset https://doi.org/10.15468/8uvger accessed via GBIF.org on 2024-12-12.

Description

From 2002 to 2007 volunteer butterfly enthusiasts spent thousands of hours in the field in an effort to record the status and distribution of Vermont butterflies, the first systematic statewide butterfly atlas to be undertaken. As part of this atlas, historic records were digitized from regional collections. Despite their potential importance, butterfly specimens in the UVM Zadock Thompson Natural History Collection had never been catalogued systematically. In January of 2004 we obtained permission to bring 40 volunteers into the collection for a one-day sorting and determination workshop. Volunteers worked in teams, first sorting pinned specimens by family and then to genus and species. After sorting, volunteers worked in pairs to add a unique identification number to each pinned specimen on a separate label, identify each to species, and enter the label data into a spreadsheet. Only people with experience in species identification made determinations, and any difficult or questionable determinations were referred to experts.

Sampling Description

Study Extent

State of Vermont

Sampling

Mostly from student collections held in the museum.

Quality Control

see intro

Method steps

see intro

Taxonomic Coverages

butterflies and giant silkmoths from Vermont

Papilionoidea
common name: butterflies rank: superfamily
Saturniidae
common name: giant silk moths rank: family

Geographic Coverages

State of Vermont, USA

Bibliographic Citations

McFarland, K.P. and S. Zahendra. 2010. The Vermont Butterfly Survey, 2002 – 2007: A Final Report to the Natural Heritage Information Project of the Vermont Department of Fish and Wildlife. 298 pp. dx.doi.org/10.6084/m9.figshare.827269.v1 - dx.doi.org/10.6084/m9.figshare.827269.v1

Contacts

Kent McFarland
originator
position: conservation biologist
Vermont Center for Ecostudies
Norwich
05055
Vermont
US
email: kmcfarland@vtecostudies.org
userId: http://orcid.org/0000-0001-7809-5503

Bryan Pfeiffer
originator
position: associate biologist
Vermont Center for Ecostudies
Norwich
05055
Vermont
US

Kent McFarland
metadata author
position: conservation biologist
Vermont Center for Ecostudies
Norwich
05055
Vermont
US
email: kmcfarland@vtecostudies.org
userId: http://orcid.org/0000-0001-7809-5503

Kent McFarland
administrative point of contact
position: conservation biologist
Vermont Center for Ecostudies
Norwich
05055
Vermont
US
email: kmcfarland@vtecostudies.org
userId: http://orcid.org/0000-0001-7809-5503