Butterflies are not only one of the most specious groups of animals on the planet, but they are also highly seasonal, and important pollinators for many of our local and crop plants.
We are collaborating with the Botanical Gardens of the Ozarks and the citizens of the greater Northwest Arkansas region to document and track the seasonality and abundance of our local butterfly species, and to determine broad patterns of butterfly behavior and sensory ecology.
We officially launched our NWA Butterfly Behavior project spring of 2017, and celebrated our launch by teaching kindergarteners about light and butterfly signaling during the Botanical Gardens of the Ozarks annual Earth Day celebration. (Link to a photo by the NWA Democrate-Gazette)
Many thanks to the hundreds of students and NWA citizens who have participated in our first five years of data collection! And to the many UA Animal Behavior and Principles of Zoology students who collect data in NWA at locations outside of the Botanical Gardens, which we use for comparative studies.
With behavioral data collected on over 1,000 butterflies each of the last three years, we consider this community data collection project quite the success. Results of our first three years of data collection can be found in the linked publication below, and please stay tuned for updates on results and project expansions in the coming months.
In an effort to enhance community engagement during the COVID-19 related period of physical distancing, we worked with the BGO to produce a contact-free and phone-friendly data collection platform. We now have both phone-friendly and paper data collection options available, and look forward to continuing to be socially connected to the NWA community through this project, though we may be physically apart.
Related Publications
Merrill, A.N.*, Hirzel, G.E.*, Murphy, M.J., Imrie, R., Westerman, E.L. (2021) Engaging the community in pollinator research: the effect of wing pattern and weather on butterfly behavior. Integrative and Comparative Biology 61(3): 1039-1054 pdf.
News article highlighting this project: Citizen Scientists: Advancing Research Together from Backyards to Labs
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- Irradiance measurements for the Vegetable Garden at the Botanical Garden in April, 2017.
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- Botanical Garden of the Ozarks
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- Reflectance spectra used to show students that butterflies and flowers reflect light we cannot see.