Conditions for Overcollecting

[Leptraps at aol.com]

Anne:

There are numerous colonies of Eumaeus atala in Dade County. Many large areas 
of slash pine contain abundant coontie, the atala show-up, eat the coontie 
down to the ground. The coontie comes back up and shortly there after, the 
atala reappear. E. atala is alive and very well in south Florida.

Hemiargus thomasi has vanished from south Florida, including the Keys. I, and 
several other collectors have made a dozen trips to County and the Keys. The 
reason it is gone is that it's larval host plant, Cardiospermun halicacbum 
(Balloon Vine) has all but disappeared. I know of several areas with just a 
few plants. Balloon Vines are at there best in cultivated citrus that becomes 
untended, and it did very well in disturbed areas in the Keys. There is 
little natural area to disturb in the Keys that is not in some governments 
hands (State, Fed, City, etc.). Besides H. thomasi, Chlorostrymon simaethis 
also has disappeared. However, Hemiargus ammon is very well established on 
Big Pine Key and No Name Key. 

We have also found several slash pine areas with large populations of Anaea 
floridalis. We (Bob Beiriger, Dave Fine & I) are currently rearing them. We 
have also found several other rare species in Dade County. However, several 
others are still missing. We continue to collect in Dade County and we are 
confident that we will choice species hiding here and there. We are looking 
for; Epargyreus zestos, Eunica monima, Stymon limenia and Neonympha helicta 
dadenensis. The list of moths is over 70 species.

The freeze in December of 1989 and Hurricane Andrew played an important role 
in many of the missing. Habitat fragmentation due to development is the major 
contributor to habitat loss. When a small hammock in Dade County is 
bulldozed, only a few of us understand the impact. Over collecting never 
wiped out a butterfly, habitat loss has. I know of no collector who drives a 
bulldozer. (I do know one who's wife looks like one!)

Leroy Koehn
Lake Worth, FL