Please look for Silvery Blue butterflies in San Francisco’s Presidio National Park

This April, we released Silvery Blue butterflies in the Presidio to function as ecological surrogates for the extinct Xerces Blue butterfly.  The release site was carefully chosen near where Xerces last fluttered within the restored dunes in Presidio National Park.  This collaborative endeavor represents over 25 years of dedicated work from many partners, ranging from habitat restoration to scientific research, from field trips to outreach all with the collaboration of incredible stewards in the Presidio and the source sites found in Monterey County.

The Silvery Blue butterfly, a close relative of the Xerces Blue, inhabits a wide range of environments from Baja California to Nova Scotia.  The Academy's science efforts focused on finding thriving populations of Silvery Blue butterflies that were genetically ‘close enough’ and importantly, that shared Xerces' preferred climate, habitat, and host plant.   We used two lines of evidence, genomics, and ecology to answer the questions: What was Xerces? How is it related to the Silvery Blue butterfly, its closest relative? Which Silvery Blue populations make the best surrogates?

This community project was brought to us by external partners. They and our Academy teams deserve both credit and thanks.

For more, see the Academy press release: "California Academy of Sciences and Presidio Trust repopulate sand dunes with relative of extinct Xerces Blue butterfly."  

Your observations will be aggregated on this project.

Thanks to all who made this amazing work possible!

Durrell

Partner organizations: Dedicated staff from the following institutions brought us to this moment: Presidio Trust, Presidio National Park, GGNRA, Creekside Science, Revive and Restore, University of Florida McGuire Center for Lepidoptera and Biodiversity, University of California Santa Cruz Fort Ord Natural Reserve, California State Parks--Monterey County, multiple reserves from Marin to Monterey County, and the Academy.

Academy teams: To answer these questions, our Academy Science team employed our core facilities including Entomology collections, the Center for Comparative Genomics, and our Scientific Computing facility.   We also did several years of collaborative fieldwork to pinpoint thriving populations of Silvery Blues from which to gather butterflies for translocation and release in the Presidio. Academy staff also leaned into telling the story across comms, creative, exhibits, online video, and other channels!

Posted on April 24, 2024 11:59 PM by cydno