Essays on Invertebrate Conservation

WINGS ESSAYS ON INVERTEBRATE CONSERVATION THE XERCES SOCIETY FALL 2014 CONTENTS This issue of Wings is mostly about butterflies and moths: their importance as pollinators; how atalas disappeared from south Florida and then returned; and the chal- lenges in captive rearing of endangered invertebrates such as the quino checkerspot. Protecting Pollinators: A Critical Issue of Our Time Scott Hoffman Black Page 3. Butterflies and Moths as Pollinators Candace Fallon, Scott Hoffman Black, and Matthew Shepherd Although butterflies are often dismissed as pollinators, evidence indicates that they and moths do pollinate, and may have specialized relationships with flowers.Page 6. The Ecological and Social History Of the Atala Butterfly in Southeast Florida Gil L. Pettigrew Once near extinction, the atala butterfly has made a remarkable recovery.Page 12. Pupal Cells and Pumpkin Seeds: A Continuing Education in Invertebrate Zoology Paige Howorth Breeding invertebrates in zoos requires ingenuity, but it can assist in the rescue of imperiled species and introduce people to these amazing creatures. Page 17. Conservation Spotlight The Migratory Dragonfly Partnership engages scientists, organizations, and indi- viduals in studying and protecting North America’s dragonflies.Page 22. Invertebrate Notes A roundup of new books and recent research. Page 24. Staff Profile Meet Celeste Searles Mazzacano, our aquatic conservation director. Page 26. Xerces News Updates on Xerces Society projects and successes. Page 27. 2 WINGS Protecting Pollinators: A Critical Issue of Our Time Scott Hoffman Black This spring I participated in a meeting agencies titled “Creating a Federal Strat- at the White House to discuss how the egy to Promote the Health of Honey Bees federal government can better respond and Other Pollinators.” Many of the rec- to the threats facing the nation’s polli- ommendations presented at the meet- nators. Both at the meeting and through ing and in our letter to the President a letter to President Obama, I promoted were included in the memorandum, the Xerces Society’s holistic approach to which specifically mentioned native protecting native pollinators such as our bees and monarch butterflies. The Pres- agriculturally important bumble bees ident declared that “it is critical to ex- and the much-loved monarch butterfly. pand Federal efforts and take new steps This approach includes protecting and to reverse pollinator losses and help restoring habitat, and using strategies restore populations to healthy levels.” that minimize the use of insecticides Federal agencies are charged with across farms, urban and suburban areas, creating conservation strategies to ad- and our wild spaces. dress these issues. We are helping these In June, President Obama released agencies by providing guidance, techni- a memorandum to the heads of federal cal support, and pollinator expertise so The American bumble bee (Bombus pensylvanicus) is one of many bee species in North America that may benefit from federal action result- ing from President Obama’s memo. Photograph by Bryan E. Reynolds. FALL 2014 3 that they can effectively protect pollina- Resources Conservation Service are in- tors and their habitat. Here are just a few volved. I was appointed as one of two examples of our recent collaborations: ex officio members, along with Karen When the “Three Amigos”—Presi- Oberhauser from the University of Min- dent Obama, President Nieto, and Prime nesota, in our role as co-chairs of the Minister Harper— met at the North Monarch Joint Venture. Mexican agen- American Leaders’ Summit in Febru- cies are also working on their portion of ary, they promised more action to pro- the plan. In September I traveled to Valle tect the monarch butterfly. As a result, de Bravo, Mexico, to meet with agencies the North American Monarch Con- in that country, and to provide context servation Plan is being revised. A few about U.S. efforts as well as recommen- weeks ago, under the leadership of the dations for revising the plan. U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, an inter- To conserve monarchs and their agency “High Level Federal Monarch habitat, we are working with U.S. na- Working Group” was formed to address tional wildlife refuges and the other the revisions within the United States. members of the Monarch Joint Venture Agency heads from the U.S. Forest Ser- to provide advice and milkweed seed for vice, the National Park Service, the Bu- monarch restoration efforts; with the reau of Land Management, the Federal U.S. Geological Survey to develop habi- Highway Administration, and the U.S. tat restoration and conservation strate- Department of Agriculture’s Natural gies for monarchs; and with the U.S. Habitat is the key to sustaining existing populations of bees and butterflies, and is the focus of much of the Xerces Society’s pollinator conservation work. This new habitat strip was planted in fall 2013 by Xerces staff. Photograph by Brianna Borders. 4 WINGS Forest Service to provide feedback on a conservation strategy for monarchs on Forest Service lands. We are also working with NatureServe—whose network of natural heritage programs informs conservation policy across the United States —to update the status assessment for both eastern and western monarch populations. Working with ICF International through a contract with the Federal Highway Administration, Xerces is de- veloping best management practices for pollinator conservation on roadsides. These practices will guide restoration and management by state departments of transportation nationwide. We are working with the Natural Resources Conservation Service to pro- Populations of monarchs (Danaus plexip vide additional incentives for pollinator pus) have declined significantly in recent restoration on farms. With guidance years. Photograph by Bryan E. Reynolds. from our pollinator staff, new initiatives have enabled growers to restore tens work is well reflected in the report, and of thousands of acres of farmland for our books, reports, and online materials pollinators. are all included as key resources. The first product of the President’s Although we work closely with memorandum has just been released, a many government agencies, we are report from the White House Council also willing to speak up when they are on Environmental Quality that pro- not doing enough for pollinators. For vides guidance on ways that federal instance, we believe that the Environ- agencies can incorporate pollinator- mental Protection Agency should better friendly practices in new construction, regulate toxic insecticides, and we are building renovations, landscaping im- pushing for action through the Saving provements, and facility leasing agree- America’s Pollinators Act. We are also ments at federal facilities and on federal working to get protection for our coun- lands. To put this in context, the federal try’s most imperiled pollinators under government controls or owns more than the Endangered Species Act. forty-one million acres of land and well By partnering with these agencies over four hundred thousand buildings and simultaneously pushing them to in the United States. That’s a lot of prop- do more, we believe that we can achieve erty that can be made better for pollina- better protections for these vitally im- tors—and these actions can act as exam- portant animals and a more secure fu- ples and catalysts for other governments ture for the generations ahead who will or organizations. The Xerces Society’s rely upon their services. FALL 2014 5 Butterflies and Moths as Pollinators Candace Fallon, Scott Hoffman Black, and Matthew Shepherd In 1862, Charles Darwin received a Nectar in itself does not help the package of orchids from Robert Bate- plant grow, so why on earth does a plant man, a British orchid grower. Darwin produce it? And why do some plants go had been studying the pollination of to such lengths to conceal it so deeply? A orchids for many years, so it was no growing body of evidence suggests that great surprise that people would send moths—and, counter to what many re- him specimens. What was surprising, searchers have long believed, butterflies however, was that one of the orchids as well—are significant pollinators of sported nectaries, tubular spurs from at least some species. And for these ani- the flowers containing nectar at the mals, nectar is the main attraction. bottom, nearly a foot long. In disbelief, For plants, an essential step in re- Darwin wrote to his good friend, bota- producing is pollination, the sharing of nist Joseph Hooker, “Good Heavens! pollen among their own flowers or with What insect can suck it?” those of other plants of the same species; The orchid was Angraecum sesquipe- the flowers both disseminate their own dale, a beautiful species from Madagas- pollen and receive it from other flowers. car with large, white, six-pointed flow- Plants, though, are —literally—rooted ers. After examining the orchid and ex- to the spot and cannot move about in perimenting with pushing tubes down order to accomplish this transfer. Ap- into its nectaries, Darwin reached the proximately 20 percent of flowering conclusion that the only insect ca- plants release and receive their pollen pable of reaching the nectar would be on the wind, with grasses being one of a moth with an extraordinarily long the major groups of such wind-pollinat- tongue —in fact, far longer than that ed plants. The great majority of flower- of any moth known at the time. Later ing plants, the other roughly 80 percent, that year, Darwin published The Vari- rely on animals, mostly insects, to move ous Contrivances by which Orchids are their pollen about. Fertilised by Insects, in which he made For some animals, bees in particu- his now-famous prediction that there lar, the pollen is a source of food, reason “must be moths with proboscides capa- enough in itself to visit a flower. But for ble of extension to a length of between many other insects, as well as for birds ten and eleven inches!” He was correct, and other animals, the nourishment although it took more than forty years that draws them is nectar.

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