Today, the Blues butterflies include endangered species in both North and South America. Among the first placed on the United States Endangered Species List in 1975 (receiving final approval in 1992) was the much-loved Karner Blue {Lycaeides melissa samuelis Nabokov}.
Why is the Karner Blue Butterfly Endangered?
To learn why the Karner Blue butterfly was placed on the U.S. Endangered Species List, one must delve into learning more about this butterfly and its natural habitat. Excerpts from the chapter titled "Dancing with Fire" in the book, Nabokov's Blues: The Scientific Odyssey of a Literary Genius, will give the reader valuable insight on the importance of preserving the natural habitat of the Karner Blues to maintain their survival.
The Karner Blue's common name comes from the hamlet of Karner in the Albany Pine Bush of New York State. It is a striking butterfly--one reason it has become a poster child for conservationists' efforts to maintain its disappearing habitats.As a pine barren butterfly, the Karner Blue had adapted over the millennia to natural fire cycles. When the fires swept one region of the barrens, Karner Blues, none of whose stages appear to be resistant to destruction by fire, were destroyed. Still, with other samuelis populations nearby untouched by the flames, and with the understory of the burnt area cleared of undergrowth, allowing lupines to thrive, the metapopulation of Karner Blues would soon restock the burned area in renewed profusion.
The Karner is thus a "fugitive" species, driven from place to place by the unpredictable unstable conditions within its habitat but always surviving as a metapopulation. Thus, the Karner Blue is perilously dependent on what has been aptly called "dancing with fire."
Today, however, if fire burns a reduced patch of habitat, there is not likely to be another group of Karners close enough (about a half mile seems to be the maximum distance) to repopulate the area; tiny, isolated swaths of territory aren't enough to support populations of Karner Blues. It has been estimated that the Karner's numbers have plummeted by 90 percent over the last decade.
Wild Lupine: The Karner Caterpillar's Host Plant
The caterpillars of the Karner Blues, like those of many butterflies, feed on a single host plant. The Karner caterpillar's host plant is the wild lupine {Lupinus perennis} that grows within the pine barrens. This wild lupine is known as a fire plant, in that it is one of the first plants to spring up after a fire. Before the encroachment of humankind, the intermittent lightning-ignited wildfires swept the barrens and burned off herbaceous plants that crowded out the wild lupine.
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