Checkerspot on the news

[Nick Greatorex-Davies]

Do you have a reference for that Anne. We did a paper a few years ago
that looked at the spread of coarse grasses on a nature reserve here
in the UK and changes (mostly increases) in numbers of some grass
feeding butterflies and moths (Pollard et al (1998) Biological
Conservation 84 17-24). One of the possible reasons for the increase
in coarse grasses, we speculated was atmospheric nitrogen deposition
(eg from exhaust emissions for cars), but we had no direct. evidence
for this.

Nick



Mr J Nick Greatorex-Davies
(Butterfly Monitoring Scheme co-ordinator)
NERC Centre for Ecology and Hydrology
Monks Wood
Abbots Ripton
Huntingdon
Cambridgeshire PE28 2LS  UK

Tel: (+44) (0) 1487 773 381
Fax: (+44) (0) 1487 773 467
E-mail: ngd at ceh.ac.uk

>>> anne kilmer <viceroy at anu.ie> 07/05/00 06:21:44 >>>
I have pursued this on the glorious Web ... 
They're finding that the nitrogen in vehicle emissions causes
non-native
grasses to crowd out the native host plants that the Bay checkerspot
uses. 
They now use cows (!) to graze down the grasses and find that the
butterfly returns. 
Anybody think they're grazing the embattled area? 
 Cows are not an elegant solution anyway. I suppose the little man
with
the bucket and spade is gathering the manure, but hooves dig up
fragile
soil, destroy other plants, and cows are not that particular as to
what
they eat. 
Sheep and goats would be worse. 
Any votes for Boy Scouts with Roundup onna stick? 
Second graders with nail scissors? 
The requirements for the bugs are frighteningly precise ... maybe
we'll
win, and I'm glad we're trying, but oh Lordy, Lordy.
 
http://www.hort.agri.umn.edu/h5015/97papers/mason.html 

Here's a nice site. 

Anne Kilmer
Mayo, Ireland
Doug Yanega wrote:
> 
> >http://www.butterfliesforsale.com/Species.htm 
> >
> >Would that be the Chalcedon checkerspot, do you think?
> 
> No, it would Euphydryas e. editha, known as the Bay Checkerspot
(the name
> "bayensis" is not valid). It *IS* Federally listed, and if it
occurs on the
> property in question (it's certainly the right area), then
theoretically
> there should be significant difficulties in getting the land
developed.
> Five years with no sightings is certainly possible on an inhabited
piece of
> property, though it all depends on the credibility of the
consultants doing
> the surveys. One certainly does hear of consulting firms who
conveniently
> fail to report positive sightings, or contract out to marginally
competent
> field people who don't do a thorough job of surveying.
> 
> Doug Yanega        Dept. of Entomology         Entomology Research
Museum
> Univ. of California - Riverside, Riverside, CA 92521
> phone: (909) 787-4315 (standard disclaimer: opinions are mine, not
UCR's)
>            http://insects.ucr.edu/staff/yanega.html 
>   "There are some enterprises in which a careful disorderliness
>         is the true method" - Herman Melville, Moby Dick, Chap. 82