Two years have flown by at an amazing speed! I earned my Masters’
in entomology from the University of Florida in Gainesville, worked part time
for USDA Biocontrol and later for the UF Vero Beach campus in the Medical Entomology
Department (identifying non-target insects found in mosquito control experiments).
I am finally back in south Florida, living “deep in Dade” and
working as the Biological Scientist in the Ornamental Entomology Department at
the UF Tropical Research and Education Center (TREC) campus in Homestead.
(Note: the plants are ornamental, not the insects…although if you know insects,
you know that they can be extremely ornamental and beautiful.See Tiger Beetle below. I think the
department should be named ‘Ornamental Plant Entomology’, but no one asked me.)
I’ve continued to be involved with Atala colonies, and working more
closely with NABA volunteers in Palm Beach, Broward and Miami-Dade counties. We've
had two amazing experiences with whole colony rescues coordinated with Palm
Beach NABA volunteers in the last few months.
In
August, Jeff Gagnon, the planning and zoning administrator for the City of Riviera Beach,
contacted NABA about the fact that a city park by the beach was going to be
razed and renovated, but a self-established Atala colony had ensconced itself
in the perfect habitat there. We were surprised and very happy that he knew to
contact us! By early September, Chris Lockhart from NABA Palm Beach did the preliminary scouting for
us; shortly thereafter, Alana Edwards and me, and four of our student
volunteers, went to the site and literally dug up and moved over sixty large
(huge) coontie plants as well as over 50 Atala adult butterflies. Here's Jeff, Vince, me and Cristian at the site with a truckload of coonties and a cage full of adult butterflies:
We
then schlepped the plants and bugs to their new home at the Robert J Huckshorn
Arboretum, where Alana and her students had planted a wonderful butterfly
garden, in Florida Atlantic University’s Honors' College in Jupiter. Within minutes
of being released in the garden, the females were already scoping out
ovipositing sites on the newly moved coonties, which were not yet in the
ground! Cristian dug sixty+ holes for the plants and a second group of FAU students installed the coonties later in the day.
This highly successful rescue was made possible by many people, and I especially
thank Jeff and the City of Riviera Beach for being both ecologically sensitive
and conscientious about the Atalas on the property. The good news here is that Jeff and the City of Riviera Beach want their colony back when the renovations are complete. We will be very happy to accommodate them!
And
then, within a month, yet ANOTHER self-established Atala colony was due to be
destroyed by a commerical developer! Lana Edwards of the Atala NABA chapter in Palm
Beach had been monitoring this very urban site for us for many years. Located in an
abandoned parking lot, surrounded by concrete, heavily trafficked streets,
businesses and residential housing, this seemed like an unlikely place to find
a flourishing self-established Atala butterfly colony. But that is exactly what this site was.
The
Atalas had found a goldmine of large healthy coontie plants, huge trees for
shade, and abundant nectar in the alley-weeds and trees adorning the compact
site. The Atala population erupted and crashed over the years as normal, but was firmly ensconced
and we considered it a permanent site for many years.
Lana
just happened to be at the site counting Atalas (probably bent over in a highly
uncomfortable position), when a man approached her to ask, with puzzled
curiosity, “What are you doing?”
She
explained patiently that she was counting the eggs, larvae and pupae of the
Atala butterfly, an imperiled species, and had been doing so for about ten
years. She told him that the colony was self-established, and how important it
was for the conservation of the species….At that point, the man revealed that
he was the superintendent for a developer located in Jacksonville that had recently bought the property
and that they were about to raze it in a week! Yikes! Lana sent out emergency
emails for help from all.
NABA
volunteers had to act fast again…..very fast! Lana convinced the superintendent
Rodney to allow us three weeks to remove not only the butterflies, but as many
of the beautiful coontie plants as possible. If the coontie plants at Riviera Beach were huge,
the coontie plants at this Delray site were enormous. And there were a lot of
them.
Immediately,
NABA volunteers from Palm Beach, Broward and Miami-Dade were called in (AGAIN!)
and many individuals came to the rescue. Literally truck load after truck load
of coontie plants were removed from the site; the rootstocks on these plants
were deep and heavily entangled. It was back-breaking work that took days to
accomplish. You can read more about it in the Dahoon, the newsletter for the Palm Beach Chapter of the Florida Native Plant Society here.
I removed a large number of adult butterflies to a safe haven in Miami, but the
immatures (eggs, larvae and pupae) were removed with the plants and relocated in many new
locations to start new colonies. Any remaining adult butterflies dispersed by
themselves to establish new sites nearby. Volunteers graciously counted the
immature insects for me so that we could have a final count of the last
denizens of this colony. (That data is still being processed.)
Unfortunately, this colony will probably not be reintroduced once the new development is in place, unless they decide to plant coontie as an ornamental landscape...in which case, we may get called in to rescue the bugs again when the caterpillar herbivory makes the new owner's unhappy about the plant's appearance.
So
although it is very sad that two healthy, large self-established Atala colonies had to
be removed, but it is better to be relocated than destroyed! And it was
beneficial to a number of new sites: the locally owned “Swinton Community
Garden” was one recipient (the owner, Michiko Kurisu, designed the Morikami
Museum, so the butterflies truly have an awesome new site to live in).
Another
new colony was established in the Town of Wellington, and several new colony
introductions and re-introductions took place via the Palm Beach County
Department of Environmental Resources, including Delray Oaks Natural Area,
Pondhawk Natural Area, High Ridge Scrub Natural Area and Jupiter Ridge.
Volunteers from the Native Plant Society pitched in as well, and a
number of private individuals benefited, too. The “pay” for all that hard labor
was a few plants and some larvae to start or compliment their Atala gardens.
NABA was also able to raffle off some of the plants for fund-raisers…there were
hundreds of coonties and plenty to share with the three counties.
ZooMiami even benefited as volunteers made the trip from south Miami to Delray Beach to
dig up their own native coonties for the endangered pinelands. A group of us
planted over 250 host plants for the Atala, Bartram’s Scrub Hairstreak, the
Florida Leafwing and the Florida Duskywing a few weeks later.
And ….Would that other such perfect butterfly habitats were being
so carefully handled:
Most of you have most likely heard about the “Richmond Pineland”
property by ZooMiami being sold by the University of Miami to a developer, who
wants to bulldoze acres of the land to build a housing development, a Walmart
and a retail shopping mall! The property is one of the largest remaining pine rockland
habitat in Miami-Dade County outside of Everglades National Park, and
represents a big part of the 2% which remains.
The area by ZooMiami includes the Richmond tract, the Coast Guard Communications Station, and smaller tracts of pine rocklands still belonging to the University of Miami. It is home to not only the ‘imperiled’ Atala butterfly, but also
two other pineland denizens, Bartram’s Scrub Hairstreak (Strymon acis
bartrami) and the Florida Leafwing (Anaea troglodyta
floridalis), both recently listed as ‘Endangered’ by the USFWS. In
addition, this property is adjacent to the Coastguard pinelands, where the
Florida Duskywing (Ephyriades brunnea floridensis),
another imperiled butterfly can be found.
There are endangered Bonneted Bats (Eumops floridanus) on
the site, and the Richmond pine rocklands only place in the world where you can
see the beautiful green iridescent Miami Tiger Beetle (Cicindela scabrosa
floridana). Tiger beetles are named for their aggressive stalking and
lightning-fast predation. I added my name to the emergency petition submitted to the US Fish and Wildlife Service to get the Miami Tiger
Beetle listed as federally endangered.This is one of those "ornamental" insects!
Photo of the Miami Tiger Beetle by C. Barry Kingsley.
There are also plants located on the site that are listed as
endangered! The deltoid spurge (Chamaesyce deltoidea) is there in the
Richmond tract, which successfully stopped the destruction of Rockdale pine rockland
many years ago, but it did not have to fight the mayor, the president of the
University of Miami, the big bad dog developer, as well as seemingly the county
itself! Times have changed very sadly.
The Richmond tract also has
Brickell-bush (Brickellia mosieri) and tiny polygala (Polygala
smallii) growing in its limestone substrate. That is a harsh environment to
survive, but the unique plants, insects and mammals evolved over millennia
together. Destroying them for the sake of an amusement park and shopping plazas
is just insane.
All parties seem to be oblivious to damage they are causing. The
entire extent along SW 152 Street in Miami is an extremely valuable ‘corridor’
that hosts all of these butterflies, from the east coast to the furthest western
boundary. There are not only remnant pinelands along the entire region, but
there are many domestic gardens as well. One home near the zoo boasted a Martials
Scrub Hairstreak (Strymon martialis) in their garden (host plant Florida
Trema and Bay Cedar).
And yet, this is the area the city wants to declare a
slum and blight, so they have the excuse to bring “economic development” to the
community. The community does not need or want this kind of development. I do not know one person who would voluntarily opt to have a Walmart
or an amusement park in their back yard. Please help us stand up against this travesty against our remaining wildlife and ecosystems!
PLEASE join us all for a RALLY for the ROCKLANDS on January 17,
2014:
We need as many of your to join hands as possible. Share the news
on Facebook, Twitter, and any other social media you use.
For more background, and there is lots of twists to the story:
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