Comments on: Posts totally win

Posts totally win

caddis — Wed, 16 Jul 2008 23:42:07 -0800

Saving the Regal Fritillary The Regal Fritillary (Speyeria idalia) is one of the largest and most spectacular butterflies found in North America....About ten years ago, the Regal Fritillary could only be found in a single nature preserve in Indiana. This year, the Fort Indiantown Gap Training Center won the [Environmental A]ward for its efforts in preserving the Regal Fritillary Butterfly and its habitat, building nesting boxes and tracking migratory patterns of 12 bird species, restoring five acres of wetlands, and conducting prescribed burns to manage fuel loads and forests.

Currently there is no federal protection for the regal fritillary in the United States under the Endangered Species Act, but the USDA Forest Service (USFS) has designated it as a sensitive species in Regions 1, 2, 8 and 9. This species is listed as endangered in five states, threatened in one state, and of special concern in four states. Its decline in the East was so rapid that in many states the regal fritillary had disappeared before it could be listed. Still, the regal fritillary does not currently have any legal protection or special concern designation in any of the states comprising Region 2 of the USFS. The range of the Regal Fritillary (Speyeria idalia) originally stretched from Maine to Montana and south to Oklahoma and North Carolina. Because the caterpillars utilize the prairie species of violets, this species was never found outside tallgrass prairie. Over the last 50 years, the species has sharply declined in the east and has lost 30% of its range due to many possible factors. Suburban sprawl and the conversion of prairies to farmland has led to severe habitat loss. Use of herbicides and pesticides could also affect populations.

By: dmo

dmo — Thu, 17 Jul 2008 05:18:44 -0800

Things like this make me sad and cautiously hopeful at the same time. Thanks for the post.

By: mcstayinskool

mcstayinskool — Thu, 17 Jul 2008 08:58:15 -0800

Just to clarify, this: "the Regal Fritillary could only be found in a single nature preserve in Indiana" would read far more accurately if it said this: "in Indiana, the Regal Fritillary could only be found on a single nature preserver" This butterfly is not extinct outside of Indiana, as the wording implies. I did field work for two summers in the early 1990s on a tallgrass prairie in NW Iowa. The prairie remnant was very small, 240 acres, but Regal Fritillaries were extremely common on that little patch of grassland. that said, super cool butterfly. I was studying small mammal and plants at the time, but always took some time to watch these cool creatures.

By: redsparkler

redsparkler — Thu, 17 Jul 2008 13:28:37 -0800

Ha! I read a short story yesterday that mentioned the Regal Fritillary, but only took note of the name because I thought it was a clever sounding fake title for a butterfly. Not so fake anymore, apparently.