Category Archives: Butterflies

Agreement turns I-35 into pollinator haven | Finance & Commerce

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GR:  It is definitely time to get serious about pollinator protection.  Unfortunately, this agreement is not binding and it does not mention mowing or herbicides, the principal roadside vegetation management tools of departments of transportation.  If I-35 roadsides start to become wild and rough, it will be a sign that the effort to aid pollinators is sincere.  Fingers crossed!

DES MOINES, Iowa — Soon, passengers zipping along Interstate 35 will see a lusher refuge and more food for bees and butterflies in the hopes of helping the insects boost their declining populations, six states and the Federal Highway Administration announced Thursday.

That 1,500-mile stretch of road from northern Minnesota to southern Texas is a flyway for monarch butterflies that migrate between Mexico and Canada, and is surrounded by acres of public land that can serve as friendly territory for the bees and butterflies that pollinate the plants that produce much of the nation’s food, such as fruits and vegetables.

But the monarch butterfly has lost population in recent years, which researchers say is due in part to shrinking stands of milkweed, on which butterflies feed and lay eggs. And last year, beekeepers reported losing about 40 percent of honey bee colonies in part due to pesticide use, habitat loss and parasites.

The agreement signed Thursday by officials from Minnesota, Iowa, Missouri, Kansas, Oklahoma and Texas and the federal government is meant to improve the habitat and develop a branding campaign to informally name the interstate the Monarch Highway.  Source: Agreement turns I-35 into pollinator haven | Finance & Commerce

Butterfly species decline ‘dramatically’ in Germany | Global Ideas | DW.COM | 30.03.2016

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GR:  Similar reports are coming in from around the world.  Toxic pesticides are an important contributor to the decline in many other areas.

“Climate change and nitrogen pollution may be behind the “dramatic drop” in the number of butterfly species in Germany over the past 200 years, according to new research.

“Of the 117 butterfly species recorded in 1840 in the survey site, a protected habitat in the south-German state of Bavaria, just 71 are still found today, said the authors of the study recently published in journal “Conservation Biology.”

“Species requiring a specific type of habitat or food source, such as the “elegant white and ochre-spotted” hermit butterfly, are threatened with extinction in Germany. The hermit, for instance, lives in dry grasslands and will be hit even harder by changes in land use and global warming in the future, say the authors.”  From: www.dw.com

Inventory of Moths

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Biodiversity in the Andes: Teaming up international colleagues, an entomologist of Jena University identifies nearly 2,000 geometrid moth species in the South-American Andes The rain forests in the mountains of the tropical Andes are amongst the… From: www.innovations-report.com

GR:  Yes!  We need more work like this.  And we need repeated surveys to show when species are having trouble.
Biologists estimate that only about 10% of all moth species have been identified.  Nighttime pollinators as sensitive to pesticides as their daytime counterparts, the butterflies, these innocent creatures could be going extinct faster than we are finding them.  We, the only species capable of caring for the others, might never know how many moths there were before the current mass extinction.

Numbers dwindle at Mexico’s mountain of butterflies

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“The number of Monarch butterflies (Danaus plexippus) wintering in Mexico plunged this year to its lowest level since studies began in 1993, leading experts to announce Wednesday that the insects’ annual migration from the United States and Canada is in danger of disappearing.

“A study released by the World Wildlife Fund, Mexico’s Environment Department and the Natural Protected Areas Commission blames the displacement of the milkweed the species feeds on by genetically modified crops and urban sprawl in the United States, as well as the dramatic reduction of the butterflies’ habitat in Mexico due to illegal logging of the trees they depend on for shelter.”  From: www.theguardian.com

GR:  This Guardian story is worth repeating. It covers the situation very well. It highlights the conservation failure of NAFTA and the disastrous consequences of Monsanto’s war on wildlife. Of course, the Monarch, like the Honey Bees, is just one of the many species being destroyed by pesticides and destructive harvest of the natural environment.

Decline in over three-quarters of UK butterfly species is ‘final warning’, says Chris Packham

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“More than three-quarters of Britain’s 59 butterfly species have declined over the last 40 years, with particularly dramatic declines for once common farmland species such as the Essex Skipper and small heath, according to the most authoritative annual survey of population trends.

“But although common species continue to vanish from our countryside, the decline of some rarer species appears to have been arrested by last ditch conservation efforts.

“This is the final warning bell,” said Chris Packham, Butterfly Conservation vice-president, calling for urgent research to identify the causes for the disappearance of butterflies from ordinary farmland. “If butterflies are going down like this, what’s happening to our grasshoppers, our beetles, our solitary bees? If butterflies are in trouble, rest assured everything else is.”  From: www.theguardian.com

GR:  Coldwater Farm butterflies have declined over the past few years.  This year was the worst with many of my butterfly/bee flowers going untended. Perhaps butterfly numbers will rebound in 2016, but knowing nothing of the specific causes of the decline, I have no assurance they will.

Butterflies Decline at Coldwater Farm

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Butterfly Decline in Arizona

Coldwater Farm butterflies have declined over the past few years.  This year (2015) was the worst with many of my butterfly/bee flowers going untended. For instance, Mourning Cloaks (Nymphalis antiopa) were present only in late spring and early summer. In earlier years, the Mourning Cloaks were so abundant that I had nominated they to represent the Agua Fria River ecosystem. Perhaps butterfly numbers will rebound in 2016, but knowing nothing of the specific causes of the decline, I have no assurance they will. Click here for a checklist of the butterfly and moth species known to live in Arizona. Here are pictures of a few of the common butterflies and moths (Please excuse the fx experiments).

Mourning Cloak FX
Buckmoth
Black Swallowtail Butterfly
Tiny catterpillars on grape leaf
Black Swallowtail Butterfly
Red Admiral Butterfly
Tiny catterpillars on grape leaf
Black Swallowtail Butterfly
Buckmoth
Melissa Blue Butterfly?
Buckeye Butterfly
Acmon Blue Butterfly (?)
Two-tailed Swallowtail (AZ State Butterfly)
Black Swallowtail Butterfly
Two-tailed Swallowtail (AZ State Butterfly)
Two-tailed Swallowtail (AZ State Butterfly)
Two-tailed Swallowtail (AZ State Butterfly)
Two-tailed Swallowtail (AZ State Butterfly) on Butterfly Bush
Two-tailed Swallowtail (AZ State Butterfly)
Two-tailed Swallowtail (AZ State Butterfly)
Cabbage White Butterfly
Two-tailed Swallowtail (AZ State Butterfly)
Moth
Monarch Butterfly
Buckeye Butterfly
Two-tailed Swallowtail (AZ State Butterfly)
Monarch butterfly at Coldwater Farm.
Mourning Cloak Butterfly
Two-tailed Swallowtail (AZ State Butterfly)
Huge catterpillar
Black Swallowtail Butterfly
Buckmoth
Black Swallowtail Butterfly
Moth

Nature News Digests

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GarryRogersNature News Digests:

Banned pesticides pose a greater risk to bees than thought, EU experts warn

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“Three pesticides banned in Europe for their potential to damage bee populations could pose an even greater threat than was thought, according to a new assessment by the European Food Safety Authority (Efsa).

“Already proscribed for seed treatments and soil applications, the Efsa analysis says that clothianidin, imidacloprid and thiamethoxam also pose a ‘high risk’ to bees when sprayed on leaves.

“The UK is currently facing a legal challenge to an emergency exemption it granted, allowing use of two of the substances, after protests by the National Farmers Union.

“But far from supporting the British case, the advisory expert assessment will add to pressure for an extension of the ban to apply to fruit orchards after blooming, and crops gown in greenhouses, Greenpeace says.

“The commission should expand the EU-wide ban to cover all uses of neonicotinoids on all crops, and end the self-service approach to derogations. Viable non-chemical alternatives exist and the EU should encourage farmers to use them,” said the group’s agriculture policy director, Marco Contiero.”  Sourced through Scoop.it from: www.theguardian.com

GR:  The rest of the world needs to pay attention here and see the need to escape from the chemistry industry’s death grip.

Deforestation in Mexico butterfly reserve more than triples

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In this Jan. 4, 2015 file photo, a kaleidoscope of Monarch butterflies hang from a tree branch, in the Piedra Herrada sanctuary, near Valle de Bravo, Mexico. Illegal logging has almost tripled in the monarch butterfly’s wintering grounds in …more.

“Illegal logging more than tripled in the monarch butterfly’s wintering grounds In central Mexico, reversing several years of steady improvements, investigators announced Tuesday.

“Almost all of the loss occurred in just one rural hamlet in the state of Michoacan. Loggers cut down 47 acres (19 hectares) of trees in San Felipe de los Alzati since last year’s gathering of butterflies. A total of 52 acres (21 hectares) of forest in the reserve were lost overall, including losses due to drought or pests.”

That’s the highest figure since 2009, well above the 20 acres (8 hectares) lost in 2014, according to the announcement by the World Wildlife fund and the Institute of Biology of Mexico’s National Autonomous University. The 2014 loss was about 12 acres (5 hectares) due to logging and 8 acres (3 hectares) to drought.

Sourced through Scoop.it from: phys.org