Understanding the South (S. Carolina to Mississippi)

[Ron Gatrelle]

Growing up in Iowa in the 1950's the "South" was just the "south" - a big
hunk of the country where everyone and everything was the "same" - except
for Florida as it was really different.  After 34 years of living in the
South, Bubba, how wrong that was.

To this day I don't think the rest of the country has an understanding of
the different faunal zones in the south. The southern Appalachians and the
Everglades may come to mind with some or many but not the Black Belt,
Sandhills, Islands regions. The Black Belt is (was) an extensive prairie
across central Mississippi and Alabama. Many of the butterflies of that
region are evolutionally connected with those of the west - e.g.
Deciduphagus henrici turneri. A geologically similar area is found in
Georgia, South Carolina and North Carolina. It is call the Sandhills
Region. The Islands Region is a semi-subtropical narrow coastal band from
Jacksonville Florida to Myrtle Beach South Carolina. (Charleston SC is due
west of tropical Bermuda and warmed by the same Gulf Stream.)

If you have a copy of the Peterson Western Field Guide by Opler/Wright I'd
like you to look at a couple range maps. (I don't own the Eastern Guide but
the same maps are likely in it too.)  Look at the range map for Hesperia
attalus slossonae (Dotted Skipper) in SC and GA in particular (There should
be no gap between FL and GA and the NC swath to the coast is way too wide.)
The point is that this map provides a visual of the Sandhills faunal zone.
Endemic taxa are Poanes aaroni minimus (SC), Chlosyne gorgone gorgone(SC,
GA), Chlosyne ismeria ismeria (GA, FL, MS, LA), Satyrium edwardsii
meridionale (SC, GA).

Next, under Callophrys gryneus - Juniper Hairstreak (should be Mitoura
grynea - Olive Hairstreak) note the map for Fl to SC. That tiny coastal
line is the Island faunal zone. Endemics are Mitoura grynea smilacis (SC,
GA), Anthocharis midea midea (NC, SC, GA), Hesperia attalus nigrescens
(north SC end), and perhaps Brephidium isophtalma insualrus (SC, GA, ?FL).
By the way the species grynea range in Fl is much wider than on the map to
the south and west. Insularus may be a species.

The bottom line is that there are five distinct life zones in South
Carolina for butterflies. They run in parallel from the Atlantic to the
Appalachians. In Mississippi and Alabama there are four parallel zones from
the Gulf inland. Taxa occur the length of these ecological zones and differ
across the zones. The xeric Black Belt and Sandhills are a central dividing
geological feature from North Carolina to Louisiana.
Differing subspecies often occur within and/or on either side of these
regions formed millions of years ago when those areas were the coastline.
Later, the Atlantic Island collided into eastern North America and became
today's outer coastal plain.

Butterflies live in areas today that were formed millions of years ago.
These current species (and subspecies in particular) must be assessed in
conjunction with the development of these areas - and can thus not be fully
understood apart from their biogeographical evolution. The true status of
butterflies in the South will never be appreciated until they are first
understood from this perspective. At which point eyes will finally be
opened and protection for the region's unique taxa and their habitats may
finally occur. However, at the rate things are going they may all be
extinct and turned in housing areas by then. And people wonder why I hate
monotypic pansubspecific common names. We can not protect that which we do
not know.

Ron


 
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