Identifying Idaho's Wildlife
Pg. 2


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As you can see, body form is useful in telling some groups of organisms apart.  But body form isn't always useful, especially if you are dealing with individuals that are related.  For instance, look at all of the butterflies silhouettes shown below.  Although a few of them have a slight body shape differences, they are all very similar.  If body shape isn't going to help us, what other things can we use as characteristics to help identify these butterflies?

Butterfly 1 Butterfly 2 Butterfly 3 Butterfly 4
Butterfly 5 Butterfly 6 Butterfly 7 Butterfly 8
 
  1. What other characteristics can we use to identify an organism?
    a. Wingspan
    b. Color
    c. Pattern
    d. Length of front legs
    e. all of the above


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