This webinar is part of the Virginia Master Naturalist Continuing Education series.
Description: Do you enjoy watching butterflies but wouldn't know one yellow one from another? Or are you able to identify the basic ones but wish you knew more species? Are you wanting to be a better help on one of the many citizen science butterfly surveys?
We'll answer questions like this and lots more:- Ah, all those dark-colored swallowtails - what are the distinguishing marks that determine the four different species?
- How do I tell a Monarch from a Viceroy, even in flight?
- Comma vs. Question Mark (yes, those are butterflies) - what's the difference?
- Did you know there is a carnivorous butterfly in Virginia? How to identify it.
We will be learning the identifying characteristics for many of the most common butterflyspecies found in Virginia. We won't be covering most of the skippers, due to time limitations. Nor will we talk in depth about their host plants, anatomy, flight periods, or conservation. (Those would involve another class.)
You don't need to know your butterflies to attend this extended webinar, but you'll definitely be able to identify many of them once you've taken this comprehensive class. Hopefully, you'll then use this new knowledge to help on one of the many citizen science butterfly surveys or add valuable data to an organization's monitoring records.
A downloadable document to accompany the presentation can be found in the attachments.
Presenter: Terri Keffert is the Volunteer Coordinator for the Virginia Master Naturalist program at the state office in Charlottesville. An enthusiastic Master Naturalist since 2008, she has been teaching butterfly identification classes and monitoring/leading butterfly surveys for the past eight years. Terri has a professional background in marine/estuarine ecology and restoration, water quality, wetland mitigation, archaeology, and historic seed preservation.
