Rare butterfly struggles, flutters higher

Wednesday, July 25, 2007 | 7:14 a.m.

Fears that the Mount Charleston blue butterfly was extinct have been extinguished after hikers snapped photos of the rare insect chilling at high elevations.

Despite targeted efforts by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service last summer to find the blue in pockets of meadow high on the mountain , there wasn't a single sighting.

But on June 30 a Forest Service volunteer hiking high above Mount Charleston's Kyle Canyon saw the blue, which flutters in a 9-acre habitat near Kyle and Lee canyons. Last week the insect was spotted by another volunteer and a Wildlife Service employee at about 10,500 feet .

On both occasions, the spotters photographed the elusive butterfly.

But that doesn't mean supporters of the blue should stop worrying about its fate or abandon efforts to have it listed as an endangered species, said Dennis Murphy, a UNR biology professor who studies butterflies. He said the decline of the blue and other butterfly species on Mount Charleston because of heat and drought could be harbingers of the damage that climate change can do.

"The butterflies in the mountains are sort of like miners' canaries, warning us that the impacts of climate change are actually upon us," Murphy said.

Butterflies that have survived on Mount Charleston through thousands of years of stable climate are now struggling.

The climate is "changing so quickly and dramatically, we're actually changing the fauna and flora of our desert mountains," he said.

And this year's sightings of the Mount Charleston blue butterfly, a relative of California's Shasta blue butterfly, were all at the highest, coolest altitudes of its small habitat.

Amy LaVoie, deputy assistant field supervisor for the Wildlife Service, said that in a year as hot and dry as this one, observers were lucky to see the blue at all, let alone multiple times.

But, LaVoie said, "We're not talking about extinction at this point ."

Murphy said a nearby ski resort could actually be helping the butterfly, providing beneficial summer meadows in areas typically covered by dense forest.

The Wildlife Service ruled in May that evidence that the blue butterfly was in danger was strong enough to warrant further investigation. California preservationists Urban Wildlands Group filed a petition on Oct. 20, 2005, asking the agency to categorize the inch-long blue as a threatened or endangered species. The Wildlife Service is accepting comments on the status of the blue and its habitat until July 30.

LaVoie said a ruling on the petition is expected by spring . If the Mount Charleston blue is determined to deserve protection, the agency will then decide whether it should be designated as "threatened" or "endangered."