How do I add a new checklist?


We’ve re-designed the checklist system to be more accessible. We hope you like it!

  1. Login to your account (or Register as a new user)
  2. Navigate to ‘Submit Observation’ on the top menu
  3. You can choose your location by typing the address (just as you would on Google Maps) in the ‘Enter Location’ text box. You can also find your location interactively by clicking on the map or by entering the Latitude and Longitude information directly (make sure you use a – for Longitude! So we don’t think you went to Uzbekistan and found a Western tailed blue.).
  4. Although you can also select the Country and State/Province manually, you don’t have to do it, these fields will get populated automatically.
  5. Give a name to your location in the ‘Location’ text box. Please name your site with a name relevant to you as you are saving the location information for your future use.
  6. Press Next when you are done
  7. Here fill in how you observed your butterflies. Folks mostly do ‘Travelling surveys’, Atlas programs and scientific studies use ‘Area surveys’, and ‘Incidental observations’ are for species you see here and there such as in the grocery store parking lot or at the bus stop.
  8. On the same page, fill in the day and time you spent looking for butterflies. Report the number of people in your group, including yourself.
  9. On the next page, you will see a search box. Type down the name of the species that you saw and click on it once it appears (TIP: if you don’ recall the name of the species or you want to learn more about it, you can click on ‘view all’ and a list with all the species around your location will pop-up)
  10. Once you select the species you saw, a new text box will appear. Enter the total number of individuals of that species that you saw on that location. If you don’t know the number, place an X next to the species name.
  11. As soon as you input a number of individuals, new fields will appear asking about the specifics of your sighting. You can also (and we recommend you to do it) upload up to 10 MB of pictures related to that sighting. Yo do not have to upload one photo per individual, one is enough.
  12. Once you are happy with thew submission of that species, you can repeat the same steps (9, 10, and 11) to add more species to your checklist.
  13. on the lower part of the submission window, there is a statement we would like you to verify. It reads ‘I am submitting a count of all butterflies I saw at this location, day, and time.’ We want to find out whether you are reporting all the butterflies you were able to identify to the best of your ability. Answer “Yes” to this question when you record every species present that you found; not just the highlights. We realize that all butterflies are not identifiable, and user identification ability varies. You should always answer ‘Yes’ to this question unless you are purposefully excluding some species (e.g., cabbage whites) from your checklist. You do not need to count all the individuals present to answer ‘Yes’ to this question (you can enter ‘X’ for species you observed but did not count). Please report all species; it improves our ability to make better range maps for everyone.
  14. Press the ‘Next’ button, and you’re done. Congrats!