[Leps-l] Tampa Bay Times: Endangered Schaus swallowtail butterfly may be all but gone - Aug 31

[Mike Quinn]

Endangered Schaus swallowtail butterfly may be all but gone
Craig Pittman,
Tampa Bay Times Staff Writer
Friday, August 31, 2012

<snip>

"It doesn't look too hopeful," said Thomas Emmel, a retired University
of Florida professor who has spent two decades and his own money
trying to save the Schaus from extinction.

Emmel and other butterfly experts have their fingers crossed that
there are butterfly pupae hidden among the underbrush at Biscayne
National Park that have yet to emerge, and a few female Schaus
swallowtails will again be fluttering among the torchwood and wild
lime trees next spring.

"Otherwise," he said, "I think it's gone."

full:
http://www.tampabay.com/news/environment/wildlife/endangered-schaus-swallowtail-butterfly-may-be-all-but-gone/1248986
or: http://bit.ly/OqqALH

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also:

Schaus Swallowtail: a Loss and a Lesson in Conservation
Jerico Espinas • September 3, 2012

While it was deemed to be stable in 2008 after several recovery
attempts, recent findings have concluded otherwise. Finding only four
butterflies in total during the peak spring butterfly season, the
Schaus swallowtail was given an emergency captive breeding program
that started on June 8. But it was already too late; by the time
wildlife biologists started their search for specimens, there were
none to be found.

Thomas Emmel, a retired University of Florida professor who has spent
the better part of two decades trying to save the Schaus swallowtail,
is disheartened by the news. The only hope left for the survival of
the species is in any pupal survivors – since part of the
swallowtail’s lifecycle involves a hidden pupal stage, it is possible
that there are some still hiding in the native underbrush. However,
even that is simply chasing a fleeting hope. It’s quite likely that
this season was the Schaus’s last.

full:
http://www.greenerideal.com/science/0903-schauss-swallowtail/

Mike Quinn, Austin
________________
Texas Entomology
http://texasento.net