Sharing a Photo / Reporting a Sighting

The Alaska Lepidoptera Club encourages you to share photographs and observational records of Lepidoptera to public platforms which can be accessed by citizens and scientists alike.

There are several organizations that allow people to share their photos / sightings. Ability to identify butterflies and moths to species is NOT necessary for some of these websites.

We’ve chosen to list several organizations which you can report your sightings to – please submit your observations to as many as you like!

An Alaska Lepidoptera Club Facebook Page is also in the works – once it is up and running, we will make an announcement and add it to this list.

In no particular order, here are a few of our favorites:

iNaturalist – A Community for Naturalists

eButterfly – The North American Butterfly Monitoring Network

Butterflies and Moths of North America – Collecting and Sharing Data about Lepidoptera

BugGuide – Identification, Images, & Information For Insects, Spiders & Their Kin For the United States & Canada

 

 

 

 

Welcome

Thank you for visiting the Alaska Lepidoptera Club; metamorphosed from the Alaska Lepidoptera Survey.

The Alaska Lepidoptera Survey was created by Dr. Kenelm W. Philip; he orchestrated over 600 volunteers across the state of Alaska to collect butterflies and moths for him from 1970 onward!

Dr. Philip moved to Alaska in October of 1965 and began collecting Alaskan Lepidoptera in the summer of 1966. He collected extensively across Alaska each summer, and also traveled within Canada and Russia to collect.

Through his efforts Dr. Philip amassed the largest private collection of Arctic Lepidoptera in the world, just over 111,000 butterflies and moths.

He was a phenomenal scientist and his collection will be a priceless resource for generations of researchers to come.

His entire collection is currently housed at the University of Alaska Museum, where it was moved after Dr. Philip died suddenly on the 13th of March, 2014. The collection is not currently available for public viewing, though a future exhibit is being planned.

As this website develops, we will share updates on his collection as it is being curated and databased. We will also share scanned news articles about Dr. Philip, photos and memories. He was a dear friend who is missed deeply by all who knew him.

The Alaska Lepidoptera Club shall serve to honor Dr. Philip’s legacy through continued collecting as well as photography and observational monitoring of Alaskan Lepidoptera.

As it nears closer to summer in Alaska, we will share information on how to report your sightings as well as how to collect & where to send your specimens. We will also plan several field trips for the 2015 season. We encourage anyone with interest in butterflies and moths to join us!