I was replying on my iPhone, and the small screen accounts for my confusion on the macOS iOS versions.
I was expecting to find something like one of the numerous bird identification apps, and I suspect that is what you have in mind as well. To my surprise, all of the apps I found for butterfly (insect) identification on mCOS, IOS, OR IPadOS...
- use an image either from the camera or from the Photo Library as the basis for identification
- require some sort of subscription
- phone home for identification help
In retrospect, I should not have been surprised, considering among among the millions of insect species, there are approximately 171,000 species in the Order of Lepidoptera including the 18,000 of those are butterflies. Limiting the scope to the United States there are still some 11,000 moths and 750 butterflies. Texas alone has some 498 different butterflies. The best I have come up with are web sites such as
Find Out Which Butterflies Live In Your Area -Maps, More, and
Image Gallery: Butterflies and Moths of North America.
An iPad with cellular capability and these websites might be useful
in the field.
