El Segundo blue butterfly

Taxobox
name = El Segundo blue butterfly
status = EN
regnum = Animalia
phylum = Arthropoda
classis = Insecta
ordo = Lepidoptera
familia = Lycaenidae
subfamilia = Polyommatinae
tribus = Polyommatini
genus = "Euphilotes"
species = "E. battoides"
subspecies = "E. b. allyni"
trinomial = "Euphilotes battoides allyni"
trinomial_authority = Shields, 1975

El Segundo blue butterfly ("Euphilotes battoides allyni") is a butterfly local to a small dune ecosystem in Southern California that used to be a community called Palisades del Rey, close to the Los Angeles International Airport (LAX). It is a federally designated endangered species. The El Segundo Blue Butterfly Habitat Preserve next to LAX exists to protect the species. There are only three extant colonies of this tiny butterfly still in existence. The largest of these is on the grounds of LAX; a further colony exists on a site within the huge Chevron El Segundo oil refinery complex, and the smallest colony is an area of only a few square yards on a local beach. The butterfly lays its eggs on Coast buckwheat, which the adults also use as a nectar source. Recently, some nearby beach cities such as Redondo Beach have replaced Ice plant growth near the beaches with Coast buckwheat, in order to provide the butterfiles with more of their natural food source.

Further reading

* Mattoni, Rudolf H. T., "The Endangered El Segundo Blue Butterfly," "The Journal of Research on the Lepidoptera", Volume 29 (4), Winter 1990. [http://www.doylegroup.harvard.edu/~carlo/JRL/29/PDF/29-277.pdf PDF 19.5 MB]