Nature Travel & Street Photography

I posted this article on my website a few weeks back and I am posting it here to raise some more awareness to save the Metalmark Butterflies:

Also called the Lange’s Metalmark after late William H Lange Jr., the UC Berkeley entomologist and UC Davis professor, who first identified this butterly in 1930, this grey metallic colored, spotted butterfly with a wingspan of about 1 to 1.5 inches, is fast becoming extinct! The Metalmark, from the Riodinidae family, is one of the first insects to be protected by the US Endangered Species Act since 1976. The peak count stood at 45 adults in mid 2006 from 232 in 2005 and a high of 2,342 in 1999.

In a similar situation, the Palos Verdes blue butterfly, a Southern California local species once thought to be extinct, was revived by habitat improvement and captive breeding. Similar approach is taken to save and revive the about to be extinct Metalmark. Once quite popular throughout the central and northern Californian region, the Metalmark is now only found in the Antioch Dunes National Park. The revival process is slow and tedious, made even more difficult by the facts that it’s breeding ground is shrinking every day and it can only produce one generation in a year.

The adults lay eggs at the base of buckwheat stems during late summer, during August & September. The eggs hatch into larvae during the rainy season and are known only to feed on the buckwheat. With wild fire burning down large areas of buckwheat every year, the larvae dies of starvation. For the ones who survive, mature from caterpillars into butterflies in mid to late summer. Such a long gestation and maturity period makes breeding in captivity of this species even more challenging.

At the time of writing this article, Feb 24 2007, I have only seen one Metalmark in the Don Edward Wildlife Refuge. I could not take its picture! I was patiently waiting to see it pair up with another one, but it fluttered all alone!

The approximate $250,000 grant from the Central Valley Project Conservation Program for the Metalmark’s revival is to be run at the San Diego Zoo’s Beckham Center for Conservation Research in Escondido.

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