Rare butterfly may be placed on endangered species list ..Article

[Bob Parcelles,Jr.]

Rare butterfly may be placed on endangered species list 

By Pamela Smith Hayford, phayford at news-press.com   Ft.Myers 
News-Press  January 24, 2002
http://www.news-press.com/news/today/020124blue.html


A small blue butterfly - about the size of a quarter, wings 
and all - used to flutter around these parts of Florida 
years ago. 

But today the delicate-looking Miami blue may be near 
extinction. 
     

The population is so low - only one confirmed colony is 
left - that the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service is considering 
putting the Miami blue on the endangered species list and 
it is looking for input. 

Finding a Miami blue in Southwest Florida is a rarity, say 
local butterfly enthusiasts. 

"I don't know a whole lot about it except that I never 
expect to see one here," said Gayle Edwards, a master gardener 
of four years specializing in butterfly gardens. 

The last verified sighting of a Miami blue colony here was 
in Sanibel in 1990, said John Calhoun, a researcher who 
this month finished a study on the Miami blue with two other 
scientists: "The Rise and Fall of Tropical Blues in 
Florida." 

"It's been all over, but you can't find them anymore," said 
Mia Mazza, who runs The Butterfly Sanctuary of Naples with 
her husband, Tom. 

The Miami blue isn't the only fancy flutterer to fade away. 
The Atalla butterfly has become a rare sighting. 

"There will be more. I can see losses of population here in 
Collier County already," Tom Mazza said. 

Many people blame development. Some blame mosquitoes 
chemicals. 

"Really habitat loss is the main problem," Calhoun said. 

Most construction clears away the natural plants and 
replaces them with landscapes of exotics that local wildlife, 
including butterflies, can't eat. No food. No butterflies. 

Some developers are doing better, like The Bonita Bay 
Group, Tom Mazza said. They plant natives. 

Backyard butterfly gardens are also becoming more popular. 

"If everybody could do that, and that's one of the things 
we do, that would give them a source of food and help 
maintain a population that's being destroyed," Tom Mazza said. 

Fish and Wildlife Service's Miami blue notice two weeks ago 
sparked the beginning of the Miami Blue Preservation and 
Restoration Project by the Institute of Ecological and 
Environmental Studies. 

The program started as a challenge from a Tampa Bay area 
scientist, Bob Parcelles Jr., to colleagues to do something 
about the Miami blue. 

"They're going to do plantings and restorations and things 
like that," Parcelles said. "It's going to give us the 
blueprints to monitor other species." 

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=====
Bob Parcelles, Jr
Pinellas Park, FL
RJP Associates, C2M-BWPTi
rjparcelles at yahoo.com
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/naturepotpourri
"Change your thoughts and you change your world."
- Norman Vincent Peale

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