[leps-talk] Rare butterfly may be placed on endangered specie s list ..Article

[Grkovich, Alex]

Well, I was literally tripping all over them last weekend on St. Thomas, US
Virgin Islands.

> -----Original Message-----
> From:	Bob Parcelles,Jr. [SMTP:rjparcelles at yahoo.com]
> Sent:	Thursday, January 24, 2002 10:46 AM
> To:	LEPSrUS
> Cc:	TILS-leps-talk at yahoogroups.com; Leps-List
> Subject:	[leps-talk] Rare butterfly may be placed on endangered
> species list ..Article
> 
> 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." 
> 
> - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - 
> - -
> 
> 
> =====
> 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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