Audubon Butterflies – Trying Out the App

Ah, smartphones. Now that we have them, we wonder how we ever lived without them. Recently, we decided to give the Audubon Guides Butterflies app a try, to see how helpful it could be out in the field when our guidebooks weren’t available. Below are our thoughts on the advantages and disadvantages of the app, in our experience.

What We Liked:

• The color photographs of the butterflies included in the guide are gorgeous, and useful for identifying, especially as most butterflies include multiple pictures from several angles. The descriptions include size and differences between male and female if applicable. It has has behavior and habitat facts, including host plants for caterpillars.
• When narrowing a search by “Region” in the Advanced Search function, one of the region options is “Florida”. Florida has a very different ecosystem from even its closest neighbors, and our butterfly species are often quite different since they include many tropical species. It’s nice to have an option specific to our state, rather than being lumped into “Southeast”. (Another region option is “Texas”, a state with more butterfly species than any other.)
• The ability to Browse by Shape is nice, although some less-experienced users might not be able to distinguish between some of the options, like Metalmark and Coppers.
• The Advanced Search function is probably the most useful for all users. If you know your butterfly, you can search by common or scientific name. If you don’t, you can narrow the list by Shape, Habitat, Region, Color, and Size or any combination of these.

  What Needs Improvement:

• The All About Butterflies section has “Observing Butterflies” and “Butterfly Collecting Tips”, but no section on creating butterfly gardens. We’d much rather see this behavior encouraged, since it actually helps butterflies, instead of telling people how to net butterflies or collect caterpillars. A section on Butterfly Gardening should be a part of this app, including a list of general nectar and host plants and other general tips. This is a disappointing oversight.
• The My Content section is clunky at best. Creating life lists is cumbersome, especially if you have dozens or hundreds of species you’d like to add up front. Adding sightings is nice if you have GPS turned on and are adding it on the spot, but you can’t add your own pictures to your sightings, though you can create an album and upload pictures to it.
• While habitat ranges are described in the descriptions of each species, this app lacks regional maps that are found in other Audubon apps. It would be nice to see these added. It also lacks a “Similar” section, which is very useful for making comparisons in the Birds app.
• Though this app doesn’t mention moths in the title, it does include a small selection of moths (about 100 or so). It would be nice to see this section expanded, or even separated out into its own app.

Overall, this app has its uses in the field. I used it on a recent trip to North Carolina to verify the sighting of a Salt Marsh Skipper. It has fewer features than some of the other Audubon apps, and feels like it still needs more information added. To our knowledge, though, it’s the only butterfly guide app out there, and if you can catch it on sale (we got it for 99 cents) it’s worth having in your pocket.