SELMA — Without Selma, the book wouldn’t be as spectacular.

“What Selma did was enable it to be the best it could be,” said Paulette Haywood Ogard, coauthor of the book “Butterflies of Alabama: Glimpses into Their Lives.”

Ogard and coauthor Sara Bright kicked off the tour for the book at the Lunch at the Library event Thursday and thanked butterfly enthusiasts of Selma for their monetary support and encouragement during the creation of the book.

Because Selma is known as the Butterfly Capital of Alabama, it made perfect sense to Elizabeth Motherwell, natural history editor and development officer for UA Press, to ask Selma to jump on board with the book.

In order to make the book full color and 486 pages, the publishing company needed $10,000, but only had a budget of $6,000. That’s when Carol Sommers and Elizabeth Buchanan stepped in as heads of a collection effort.

After two months, volunteers had $7,600 in donations from 75 people.

“It didn’t have to get cut down or downsized in any way, as far as quality goes,” Ogard said. “Every picture in there is color and we’ve got that nice binding that’s on it. We didn’t have to cut back and make a thinner book. It really made a significant impact in quality.”

Bright was overwhelmed by the more than 60 people at the library event and is grateful for the support.

“I’ve always heard of Selma as such a warm and wonderful Southern city where Southern hospitality is still alive,” Bright said. “Today we came and we just experienced it. It’s been a magnificent feeling. Everyone here is already excited about butterflies and about this book because of Ms. [Mallieve] Breeding and because Selma has celebrated butterflies for such a long time. It’s rare that we enter an audience that’s already as in love with butterflies as we are, so it’s been just delightful.”

Breeding, known as “Madame Butterfly” for her knowledge of the animal, would have liked to use a book like what is affectively referred to as “the butterfly book” during her many presentations to school groups.

“There was very little known about butterflies,” Breeding said. “This would have been a help.”

To Breeding, the book is flawless.

“It’s gorgeous,” Breeding said. “Perfectly beautiful.”

Jackie McConnell, friend of Breeding and fellow member of the Butterfly Capital Garden Club, visited the library event to purchase the book and listen to Ogard and Bright describe the life cycle and defense mechanisms of caterpillars and butterflies.

“I flipped through it and it is beautiful,” McConnell said. “It is a beautiful book, beautiful pictures, and I am sure the text is great, too. From listening to the ladies speak, I know it is full of information.”

The guide will serve as a butterfly resource for everyone from children to amateur watchers. It catalogs the life cycles of the 84 known species of Alabama’s butterflies. Ogard and Bright spent 14 years collecting the information and the 400 images.

Selma became the Butterfly Capital of Alabama in 1982 as a conservation effort and to increase education about butterflies.