Glassberg tells reporters collectors "could wipe out" the Miami Blue

[Chris J. Durden]

At 06:03 PM 1/10/2002 -0500, you wrote:
>Roger sent this to me off line, but it is such a good statment/question I
>want to pass it on.  Ron
>
>Yes but what happens if the Miami Blue or Schaus Swallowtail is located in
>one or a few locations and a hurricane devestates an area. If each site of
>the butterfly is wiped out, the species go extinct since there are no
>colonists from surrounding areas to re-populate the now more suitable
>habitat.
>
>Roger Kuhlman

There seems to be but one locality for *H. aristodemus ponceanus* in 
Florida but a waif of the same subspecies from the northern Bahamas will 
eventually recolonize, if habitat remains. Beyond that there is *H. a. 
majasi* of the middle Bahamas and *H. a. bjorndalae* of the southern 
Bahamas. Then there is *H. aristodemus temenes* from Cuba which would 
eventually take its place. If that were gone too there is always *H. 
aristodemus aristodemus* from Haiti, Dominican Republic and Puerto Rico. A 
local population at risk, but it hardly seems like an endangered species or 
even endangered subspecies unless someone has recently removed the island 
populations of the northern Bahamas to a new subspecies.
    Have the endangered crew worked with these other races of The Dusky 
Swallowtail?
    The situation is similar for *H. thomasi*. Both are tropical 
peripherals that got there as storm waifs, should not be expected to 
survive indefinitely, and be recolonized by future waifs.
............Chris Durden


 
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