Identifying Idaho's Wildlife
Pg. 9

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The butterflies that are not orange can be differentiated by color and pattern. The Silver-Spotted Skipper is brown with a white spot on both front wings. The Sara Orangetip is white with a the tip of the front wings yellowish. Finally, the Two-tailed Swallowtail has yellow wings with black stripes and two tail-like projections from the hind wings.

Brown with white spot on front wings	Wings white with yellowish on tips of front wings	Wings yellow with black stripes; two tail-like projections from hind wings.
Silver-Spotted Skipper	Sara Orangetip	Two-Tailed Swallowtail

Now that we have identified characters that can be used to differentiate between the eight butterflies, we can put all these characters together to make a key.  This is a tool that biologists commonly use to help them identify organisms that they don't know.