Fender's blue butterfly

Fender's Blue (Icaricia icarioides fenderi) is an endangered subspecies of butterfly found only in the Willamette Valley of northwestern Oregon, United States. The species was first noticed in the 1920s but wasn't scientifically documented and named until 1931 by biologist Ralph Macy. Later in the 1930s the species was presumed to be extinct, but small populations were rediscovered in 1989. In January 2000, the Fender's Blue was added to the Endangered Species List by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. Currently, the largest known populations of this butterfly exist in the Baskett Slough National Wildlife Refuge.

Fender's Blue butterflies are completely dependent upon the successful continuation of a threatened plant species, known as Kincaid's lupine. The butterflies deposit their eggs on the plants in May which hatch in June each year. The larvae then winter in the root system of the plants. In March they emerge as caterpillars, crawl up the plants, and feed on the lupine leaves, absorbing the high nectar content that this lupine provides. After several molting periods, Fender's Blues finally metamorphose, changing into butterflies, and in the short week to ten days remaining in their lives, they mate and then deposit new eggs for the next generation, continuing the life cycle. With most of the habitat where the lupine existed now lost to agriculture and urbanization, only isolated and protected lands support enough area for the plant to survive. It produces around once every 52 weeks, and have about six offsprings that survive to become adults.

References

• Species Profile. Butterfly, Fender's Blue. Retrieved on 2006-07-05..
• Endangered Butterfly needs proper habitat, special nectar. Retrieved on 2006-07-05..
• Fender's Blue Butterfly Icaricia icarioides fenderi. Endangered Species Fact Sheet. Retrieved on 2006-07-07..
• Double jeopardy: Endangered butterfly depends on endangered plants. Retrieved on 2006-07-07.. (Includes images of both male and female varieties)