Identifying
Idaho's Wildlife
Pg.12
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Now that you have had a chance to create a dichotomous key, you need to know that it's not as easy to create a key for all of the species in Idaho. For instance, butterflies have 168 species. Many of them look very similar, making it difficult to use characteristics that are external. To further complicate matters, there is variation in color and patterning within an individual species. A few of the butterflies are sexually dimorphic, which means the males and the females look different.
On the Digital Atlas of Idaho, we have created three keys. One key is for the butterflies of Idaho, a second will help you identify Idaho's amphibians, and the third is a key to the reptiles of Idaho. These are useful if you have an animal or picture of an animal. Another way to identify species out in the field is to have a field guide. Many field guides, such as the Audubon Society Field Guides or the Peterson's Field Guides can be helpful because they describe the unique characteristics for identifying an animal. They will also provide images of a species. Using both the digital keys that we have created and various field guides that are available, we think you will be very successful in identify Idaho's wildlife.
Happy wildlife watching.