Smith's blue butterfly

Taxobox
name = Smith's blue butterfly


image size = 222px
image caption = Smith's blue butterfly
status = LE
status_system = ESA
regnum = Animalia
phylum = Arthropoda
classis = Insecta
ordo = Lepidoptera
familia = Lycaenidae
genus = "Euphilotes"
species = "E. enoptes"
subspecies = "E. e. smithi"
trinomial = "Euphilotes enoptes smithi"
trinomial_authority = (Mattoni, 1955)

Smith's blue butterfly, "Euphilotes enoptes smithi", is an organism in the family Lycaenidae, which is also known as the "gossamer wing" family. This federally listed endangered species occurs in fragmented populations along the Central Coast of California, primarily associated with sand dune habitat and in one case with a dune-based Maritime Coast Range Ponderosa Pine forest in the Carbonera Creek watershed in Santa Cruz County. ["Environmental Impact Report for the Scotts Valley Redeveopment Area", Earth Metrics Inc., Report no. 7888, State of California Clearinghouse (1990)] The range of "E. enoptes" is from Monterey Bay south to Punta Gorda.

Over half of the original habitat of "E. e. smithi" has been destroyed by human overpopulation, coastal highway development and trampling of habitat, and invasive plants. [Black, H.D and D.M. Vaughn, "Species profile:Euphilotes enoptes smithi", in "Redlist of pollinator insects of North America", May 2005] Several sites are currently being protected to conserve Smith's blue butterfly, including the Maritime Coast Range Ponderosa Pine forest at Carbonera Creek and a preserve at Fort Ord, California—the first site ever chosen for management on behalf of an insect in the United States.Arnold, R.A., 1983. Ecological studies of six endangered butterflies (Lepidoptera: Lycaenidae): Island biogeography, patch dynamics, and design of habitat preserves. University of California Publications in Entomology 99: 1-161] "E. e. smithi" is associated with two species of buckwheat ("Eriogonum latifolium" and "Eriogonum parvifolium") during all of its life phases, such that decline in these buckwheat species' populations poses further threats to this butterfly.

Morphology

"Euphilotes enoptes smithi" is a small butterfly with a wingspan no greater than 2.5 centimeters. Males manifest dorsal wing color of a bright lustrous blue, while females exhibit brown dorsal coloration. Both genders have with orange-red band markings on the hind dorsal wings. Ventral wing coloration for both males and females is a whitish gray, punctuated with black speckling.

Life cycle and behavior

During its whole lifespan, the Smith's blue butterfly uses only two host buckwheat: "Eriogonum latifolium" and "Eriogonum parvifolium". After emerging in August or September, adult butterflies mate and deposit eggs on the flowers of these host plants. Hatching transpires soon afterward, and the larvae begin to feed on the flowers of the very same plant. The larvae have chewing mouthparts to feed on the host's flower petals as well as seeds in the flower head. Larvae have a cryptic coloration markings, closely resembling that of the blossoms where they hide. The caterpillar matures through four larval stages or "instars" in about 24 days before becoming a chrysalis. The pupation then occurs in the flower head itself or below in the leaf litter.Dixon, Dave. 1999. "Dunes Alive-The endangered Smith's blue and marina blue butterflies. A closer look at coastal dune wildlife of south Monterey Bay." U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, Tideline Vol 19 No. 3 1-3.]

Subsequent to several weeks of feeding and growth, the larvae molt to yield a pupal phase, starting a 41 week period of transformation.Arnold, R.A., 1983. Ecological studies of six endangered butterflies (Lepidoptera: Lycaenidae): Island biogeography, patch dynamics, and design of habitat preserves. University of California Publications in Entomology 99: 1-161] The following year, as the "Eriogonum" blossom again, new adults emerge, and the cycle repeats. Smith's blue butterflies have a lifespan of approximately one week. Their single week of daytime-only flight is further limited to temperatures above 60°F and to times and locales where wind velocities are quite low. Within that one week, they must do sufficient feeding to sustain, they must avoid predation, find and court a mate, and copulate. Then the female must lay the resulting eggs.

Early season males have a difficult challenge in finding females since the first females emerge about seven days after the first males. In the early season, it is common that several males congregate around a newly emerged female. Stimulated by pheromones emitted from the female, they become eager to mate before the end of their short lives. The overall population of adults is active between early June to early September.

History and conservation

Smith's blue butterfly was recorded in the scientific literature in the mid-1950s. Rudi Mattoni collected the first specimen of Smith's blue on a trip to the Big Sur region with his friend Claude I. Smith: that collection occurred in the vicinity of Dolans Creek in the year 1948 when both men were undergraduates at the University of California, Berkeley. Smith was killed in a freak accident, being swept to sea by a rogue wave while fishing from a rock at Half Moon Bay. Only thereafter did Mattoni analyze his specimen carefully, which he knew was previously undocumented; then he proceeded to publish a treatise on Smith's blue as his Ph.D. dissertation. In tribute to his friend, Mattoni gave Smith's name to the butterfly they had discovered together.

Dunes wildlife such as the Smith's blue have evolved specialized capabilities to survive on that harsh windblown, arid environment; correspondingly, such fauna have little adaptability to adjacent habitats. Thus as habitat destruction began in the early 1900s, Smith's blue colonies could not form in nearby locales, which do not offer the same richness of host plants. Smith's blue butterfly was federally designated as an endangered species in the year 1976. By that time considerable destruction of the coastal dunes had already occurred, chiefly due to coast highway development and associated coastal cities' urban sprawl.

In 1980, certain dune habitat near the mouth of the Salinas River was designated as a National Wildlife Refuge, and became part of the San Francisco Bay National Wildlife Refuge Complex. This action was taken to protect a number of threatened and endangered species that were dependent on the fragile dune environment, including the Smith's blue butterfly. By the late 1990s, about half of all the original Smith's blue habitat had been destroyed, often leaving relict dunes areas so small and fragmented to be useless; beyond that splintering of populations produced a resulting sub-optimal gene pool.

Specimens of this taxon are held at the California Academy of Sciences, University of California, Berkeley, and at the Los Angeles County Museum.Dixon, Dave. 1999. "Dunes Alive-The endangered Smith's blue and marina blue butterflies. A closer look at coastal dune wildlife of south Monterey Bay." U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, Tideline Vol 19 No. 3 1-3.]

ee also

*Carbonera Creek
*Monterey Bay
*Sand dune

References

External links

* [https://ecos.fws.gov/speciesProfile/SpeciesReport.do?spcode=I00R U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service species profile for Smith's blue butterfly]