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Endangered Butterfly Gets New Start About 30 endangered Lange's metalmark butterflies were returned to their native habitat on Antioch Dunes National Wildlife Refuge in California after being raised in a special breeding facility by students and faculty at Moorpark College as part of a concerted effort to save the nearly extinct species. Antioch Dunes Refuge is the nation's only home for the butterfly that is fluttering dangerously close to extinction. The goal of this release is to see if the pregnant female Lange's will lay eggs and if larvae released a few weeks earlier will grow to reproduce in their natural environment. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service launched an aggressive effort to restore habitat at Antioch Dunes Refuge, even as it also sought to breed the species in captivity until its wild population can be stabilized. The number of Lange's metalmark butterflies in the wild has plummeted from a peak of 2,342 in 1999 to just 45 adult butterflies in 2006. Counts are conducted weekly on the refuge during adult emergence period, from July through September. Metalmark butterflies – fragile and brightly colored – are named for their grey, or metallic-colored, wing tips. Unlike many other butterflies that can produce several generations in a year, the Lange's metalmark breeds only one group of offspring per year. One reason for the butterfly's decline has been the growth of exotic weeds that are choking out the butterfly's host plant, the naked-stem buckwheat. Antioch Dunes Refuge has been fighting the weed, which does not allow sands to shift, mandatory for the growth of the native plant on which the butterfly depends. Refuge staff and more than 100 volunteers have been removing the exotic weeds by hand to make areas more hospitable to buckwheat. So far the habitat improvements have shown good promise, as buckwheat growth increases in the treated areas. Wildfires have also played a role in the butterfly's decline. Fires that burn buckwheat will kill the butterfly in one of its phases. About 185 Lange's metalmarks were produced from the four butterflies brought to Moorpark College last year. It took many attempts to find the right combination of environmental factors to allow the Lange's to successfully mate. So far, there have been 16 confirmed matings, an impressive number since there's never been a confirmed mating of the species in captivity. Some of the 12 college students working on the Lange's project inspected the pregnant female butterflies in their containers one last time before they were loaded in a vehicle August 28 for their trip to Antioch Dunes Refuge. Small samples of the butterfly's wings were also carefully clipped to provide material for future genetic research, the first time such research was done on the species. |
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| Last Updated: September 8, 2008 |
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