“We were actually up there just trying to get ready for the season,” said Thompson, the principal investigator of the species since 2010. ![]() This year, researchers spotted their first Mount Charleston blue on June 17, the earliest sighting on record. The adult butterflies only live a week or two, generally taking flight between late June and the end of August to mate and lay eggs during the short window of warm weather in the high country. The exact population is unknown, but there have been years when surveyors couldn’t find any of the insects. For example, Thompson said, no one has ever seen the insect in its larval, caterpillar stage, which is thought to last up to two years. There is a lot researchers still don’t know about the species. The males sport iridescent blue-and-gray wings to attract mates, while the dull, bluish-brown females flutter about depositing tiny eggs on one of two small, ground-hugging host plants. The Mount Charleston blue is a distinctive subspecies of the wider-ranging Shasta blue butterfly. In 2015, federal regulators designated more than 5,200 acres in the Spring Mountains, including portions of the Lee Canyon ski resort, as critical habitat for the insect. The Mountain Charleston blue butterfly was added to the list of endangered species in September 2013, one month after the Carpenter 1 fire was contained at almost 28,000 acres. “The first plants that have come back in these burned areas between the trees are the host plants of the butterfly and the nectar plants of the butterfly,” he said. Based on the plants his team has seen growing this summer and last, Thompson said it looks like the Carpenter 1 Fire in 2013 may have opened up a sizable new addition to the butterfly’s habitat. “The more places they are located across the mountain top, the less likely that one disturbance could take the entire population out,” Thompson said.Īnd that’s not the only good news he had to offer. Forest Service also found a few Mount Charleston blues on a second ski run at Lee Canyon, suggesting the butterfly might be expanding its range there. This year, the team of researchers and students from UNLV, the U.S. UNLV biologist and butterfly expert Daniel Thompson said it’s been 20 years since anyone has counted as many butterflies along the Bonanza Trail as his group saw in 20. ![]() The Mount Charleston blue butterfly is still incredibly rare, but researchers are seeing more of them in more places than they have in decades.Ĭlose to 200 of the endangered insects were spotted over the summer at several locations high in the Spring Mountains, including isolated patches of previously unknown habitat from Bonanza Peak to the ridge line above the Lee Canyon ski area. A male Mount Charleston blue butterfly collects nectar from a rock goldenrod flower in this undated photo taken in the Spring Mountains.
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