Ontario Butterfly Atlas Online

Colin Jones, Ross Layberry and Alan Macnaughton

A total of 102,000 Ontario butterfly observations, mostly from 1969 to 2010, have been mapped in 7 ways. Access the type of maps on interest by clicking on the appropriate link below. When you are viewing a particular map, click on the square, county, park etc. to see a list of species for that geographical area. See the section "Using the Maps" below to view maps of individual species.

- 1) atlas of 10,747 10-kilometre squares

- 2) atlas of 48 TEA counties

- 3) atlas of 40 or 50-kilometre circles around 7 major cities and Point Pelee National Park (note that although some of the circles show areas in the US and Quebec, the atlas does not include butterfly observations for those areas)

- 4) atlas of 6 national parks and 247 provincial parks

- 5) atlas of 4 forest regions (i.e., life zones -- Rowe, 1972)

- 6) atlas of 22 forest sections (subdivisions of forest regions)

When you are viewing the map, click on the geographical area of interest (i.e., the particular square, county, circle, park, forest region, or forest section) to see the species list.

[For comparison purposes, here is a link to the outdated version 1 of the maps: 65,000 observations, Sept. 2011].

These maps are constructed mainly from the TEA seasonal summaries Ontario Lepidoptera. Please contribute your data (old or new) to these summaries and to the atlas -- see this page for instructions. Both members and non-members are welcome to contribute. More data will make these maps better.

Background

Following the method used in bird and reptile atlases, Ontario has been divided into 10,747 "squares." These are mostly 10K by 10K in size, although not exactly so because of the roundness of the earth. Butterfly observations are shown according to these squares, rather than the precise data points, in order to protect data about ecologically-sensitive species and to compile species lists for each square.

The data used for the maps is 102,000 Ontario butterfly observations. Most of these observations are the records submitted to prepare the TEA seasonal summaries Ontario Lepidoptera. Version 2 of the atlas includes this data for 25 years (1969-76, 1986-92 and 2001-10). The remaining 17 years of seasonal summary data should be completed this winter. Individuals have also supplied further data which is not included in the summaries. Colin Jones and Ross Layberry have prepared all of this data for the atlas. Butterfly count data is included only to the extent that it appears in individual contributors' reports with specific location information.

Using the Maps

The screen display, when it first appears, shows most of eastern Canada in the view. Zoom in by dragging the bar in the top left of the screen up a little. Zoom out by dragging the bar down. Drag the map with the mouse to move the area of interest to the center of your screen.

If you get the message "Data may still be loading -- drag or refresh the page to find out", do not wait for the page to load, as the screen display is not automatically updated when the page is ready. Instead, zoom in and zoom out as necessary until you see the finished map.

The initial screen display is of the squares where any of the 167 Ontario butterfly species have been recorded. To display only the squares for a particular species, click on the link "options" in the upper left area of the map. The "filter" label will appear, as well as 3 boxes below it. For the left-hand box, click on downward-pointing arrow beside "Square_ID," and choose particular species, such as Silver-Spotted Skipper. Then, in the middle box, click on the downward-pointing arrow beside it to change the box contents from "=" (the default) to ">". Finally, for the right-hand box, type in the number 0 (zero).

The intuition behind the above instructions is that the underlying data is the number of records on a particular species observed. Thus, the instructions are asking for a display of squares for which the number of Silver-Spotted Skipper records is greater than zero. Any number can be entered. Thus, for example, one could also display a map of squares where there are more than 12 records of Silver-Spotted Skippers.

Once the three boxes are filled in, click on the word "Apply" and the map of the distribution of the Silver-Spotted Skipper will appear. By similar means, maps of any of the butterfly species recorded in Ontario can be generated.

If you want to return to the original view, which shows all of the squares for which there is at least one butterfly record, click "clear filter." Be careful not to use this command to switch between species, because this will reset the middle box to "=" and the right-hand box to a blank (i.e., zero)--resulting in a request to display all squares in which there are zero observations of the second species.

A program "bug": sometimes the filter for a species will not take effect, i.e., the map will still show the squares or centre points for which any species has been recorded. Clicking “refresh” seems to solve the problem, but this has to be repeated each time the problem occurs.

Clicking on any particular centre point or square will show an "info window" that displays a list of the species found in that square together with the number of records for each, and a thank-you to the specific individuals who contributed the most data on that square. Individuals are identified only by the codes which are used in the seasonal summaries, which are often based on initials.

Users of the Firefox browser will sometimes find that text spills outside the info window, in which case it becomes hard to read. Viewing the page in Internet Explorer or Chrome seems to solve this problem.

One of the items given in the info window is the code for that particular square. Each code is 6 characters long. Consider the square 17-NU-41. The The first 2 characters ("17") identify the "zone". The next 2 characters ("NU") identify the "block" (generally a square 100 km on each side) within that zone. The final two characters ("41") indicate the specific 10 km square within that block. The location and naming of the square 17-NU-41, or 17NU41, is explained further in this figure from Bird Studies Canada. The complete set of all 10,747 squares in Ontario is shown on this map.

Three more types of maps are discussed in special sections below: maps which show species to look for; maps which show species by contributor; and maps which allow full user control, including display of the full data on the 65,000 observations.

The maps are shown through links to Google Fusion Tables website. Beware that this software is described as "beta", so there are some software "bugs".

Maps of Species to Look for (version 1: 65,000 observations) - access these maps here

In this set of maps, the normal contents of the info window are replaced by a "Look for" report. This is a list of the species not so far recorded in the square that are found in one or more of the 8 adjacent squares (up, down, left, right and the 4 diagonally-adjacent squares). The number of records of each species recorded in the 8 squares is also shown.

Maps by Contributor (version 1: 65,000 observations) - access these maps here

As an experiment, separate maps have been created for 3 particular contributors: CDJ, RAL and RJY. For example, one can see the squares at which RAL observed a particuar species. To use these maps, when filtering choose the combination of the species and the contributor.

Advanced Maps and Seeing the Underlying Data (version 1: 65,000 observations)- access these maps here

In all of the above maps, the underlying data uploaded to Google Fusion Tables is the number of records of each species observed in each square. None of the individual observations is accessible. Thus, the user cannot see the detail present on the actual observations such as the date, the observer, the number of individual butterflies observed, or the type of observation (sight, photo or specimen). The user also cannot use these details to restrict the mapping to only certain types of observations. For users who want this flexibility, all 65,000 records have been uploaded to Google Fusion Tables.

As with all TEA maps, these maps show only the 10K square for each observation and not the exact location where the particular butterfly was observed. The 10K squares are shown by their centre points, since the exact boundaries of the squares are available from other maps.

Caution to users: the maps are not reliable, in the sense that a map of a broad area (e.g., all of southern Ontario) will not show all of the relevant centre points. The user has to zoom in to a screen view of perhaps 200 kilometres on each side before all centre points in which the species has been observed will appear. This defect is perhaps due to the size of the file being mapped (65,000 data points vs. the approximately 1,300 data points of all of the other maps).

Filter

The initial screen display is a map for all 65,000 observations -- all species, all years, etc. The user then applies restrictions to look at particular portions of the data. Let us consider three examples of possible restrictions.

For the first example, suppose that the user wishes to view a map of all of the squares for which a particular observer (say RAL, for Ross A. Layberrry) has made observations. In that case, start with the initial screen display (or click on "Clear Filter" to go back to it) and click on "Filter". Then: for the left-hand box, choose "Observer Initials"; for the middle box, choose "=" in the middle box; and type in RAL in the right-hand box. The exact set of initials need not be known; on typing the first letter ("R" in this case), the program will prompt the user with a set of choices of observer initials which contain that letter. Then click "Apply", and the desired map will appear.

For the second example, suppose the user wants to see a map of observations of the giant swallowtail after 2005. Note that from the previous maps it can be determined that the giant swallowtail is species 57. Thus, restrict the mapping to this species by constructing the following filter: for the left-hand box, choose "Species #"; for the middle box, choose "="; and in the right-hand box, type in "57". Then click on "Add Condition" to create a second restriction on the data that is to be mapped. For this restriction, choose as follows: "Year" in the left-hand box; ">" in the middle box; and "2005" in the right-hand box. Then, as described above, click "Apply" to view the map.

The above example shows that two filter conditions can be applied simultaneously. There could be more conditions than that. To name one possibility, with three conditions one could produce a map of the squares in which the red admiral (species 147) was seen after 2000 by the observer CDJ.

For a third example, suppose that the user wants to examine the details of each observation in the dataset for, say, the mustard white (species 63) in square 17NJ41, which is near Kitchener. There are two such observations. To see the details of the first one, choose mustard white observations in the way described above and add a condition with the following choices: "Observation number for this species for this square" in the left-hand box; "=" in the middle box; and "1" in the right-hand box. Click "Apply", then click on the centre point of the relevant square, and the info window will provide details on this observation. In this case, the date is Aug. 3, 2008 and the record is a sighting of one adult. To see the next observation, replace the "1" in the right-hand box with a "2", click "Apply", and click on the centre point again. This is a sight record of 2 adults, on May 24, 2008. The user knows that the 2nd observation is the last one because the info window displays "yes" beside the question "Is this the last such observation?".

Clearly, there are many more possibilities than this. Any of the variables shown in the info window can be used in a condition.

Aggregate

Google Fusion Tables allows the user to do custom tabulations of information about the data. The most useful such tabulation is to generate a species list.

Suppose the goal is to produce a species list for all of Ontario, with the number of records for each species. From the initial display (all species, all years, etc.), go to the menu near the top of the Google Fusion Tables page, click on "Visualize", and then "Table". Further, click "options", then "Aggregate". Go to the "Aggregate by" panel, and check the boxes beside "Species #", "Common Name", and "Scientific Name". Then click "Apply". After a few seconds, a species list will appear, with a count of the number of records for each.

The only problem with this table is that the Aggregate facility will print only 100 rows. With Ontario having 168 species of butterflies, the table will be incomplete. To see a table for species 81 and higher (the Lycaenidae and Nymphalidae), it is necessary to do a combination of Filter and Aggregate. Click on "Clear Aggregation", set up a filter to select only the records for "Species # greater than 80" (as discussed under "Filter" above), and click "Apply". Then go back to Aggregate, and go through the steps outlined in the previous paragraph. This completes the list of species, with the number of records for each.

To do a similar table for just one square, first filter for that square and then use the Aggregate function to generate the list of species. Although this list is also available from the info window of the standard maps, with the advanced maps it is possible add additional filters to see a species list for a particular observer, a particular year or range of years, etc.

The output from the Aggregate command is not limited to species lists. For example, to check on the rarity and distribution of the Fiery Skipper (species 26), first filter to this species, then go to "Aggregate by", click on the boxes beside year and Square ID, and click "Apply". This shows that there are 135 records for this species in the dataset, the years in which it was recorded, and the squares in which it was found for each of those years.

Help the Atlas Project!

Please check over the maps. Let us know if any records seem out of range, as errors in entering latitude and longitude values can occur.

As noted above, problems in working with the online maps can occur with some combinations of computers and web browsers. So, please try this out, and report any problems you are having.

More data is needed. Look at the map, and see what species have been recorded in the 10K squares in your area -- many squares have no records, or just a very few species.

If you are thinking of a trip, go to Northern Ontario! Our butterfly observations fall into about 1,300, or about one-eighth, of the 10,747 squares; the main reason for the gaps is that Northern Ontario observations are sparse.

Future Plans

A printed version of this atlas will be made available when a reasonably complete set of records has been gathered and the records have been carefully examined to identify errors.

Other Ontario data, beyond that submitted to the TEA seasonal summaries, is also to be included in the atlas project. Please let Colin Jones, Ross Layberry or me know if you have access to such data.

This atlas is only maps. In that respect it is different from the TEA's 1991 Ontario Butterfly Atlas, by A.M. Holmes, R.R. Tasker, Q.F.Hess, and A.J.Hanks, which also included life history information. This information, as well as photos of both adults and caterpillars, are to be included in the Royal Ontario Museum's planned field guide to the butterflies of Ontario. For now, readers may consult the free publication The Butterflies of Toronto, which was published in September 2011 in the Toronto Biodiversity Series.

Development of the Online Atlas

The 102,000 data points were assigned to particular squares using version 1.7 of QGIS, a freely-downloadable GIS (geographic information system) program. The maps were prepared using Google Fusion Tables. The preparation of the files for both QGIS and Google Fusion Tables was done in Microsoft Excel. Thanks are due to Andrew Couturier of Bird Studies Canada for providing the data file dividing Ontario into the 10,747 squares.

Send comments and corrections to Alan Macnaughton (info@ontarioinsects.org).

Atlas Developer site