In the News
Butterfly Poaching Threatens Endangered Species
When Adriano Teobaldelli was arrested in Sequoia National Park last month, he was trying to
hide a butterfly net behind his back. A box with 51 dead butterflies made it clear this was no
absent-minded butterfly fancier.
Teobaldelli, 60, is a butterfly poacher. On Monday, July 28, he pleaded guilty to charges of
netting hundreds of butterflies in parks in California, Nevada, Utah and Colorado. The incident
underscores a dark side of entomology authorities say is increasingly threatening rare or
endangered species of insects.
According to U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service officials, there is a growing trade in protected
butterflies, some of which sell for up to $500 a pair. Rangers found 200 more butterflies in
Teobaldelli's motel room. He admitted having captured them in other parks, including Bryce
Canyon, Arches and Canyonlands parks in Utah, and Mesa Verde in Colorado.
Teobaldelli paid a $500 fine and flew home to Italy.
"It's symptomatic of a recurring probem of poachers from all over the world coming into our
national parks and turning them into the last supermarkets for traffickers of illegal wildlife," said
David Klinger of the Fish and Wildlife Service.
"It's hard to think of someone as an innocent collector, when he goes into five national parks
and hauls away so many butterflies."
Nearly 20 species of butterflies are on the endangered list
in the United States.
(In the News 3 August, 1997)
The Official State Butterfly of Florida
On Wednesday, April 17, the Florida Senate passed a bill 39-0 which would make the Zebra
Longwing Butterfly (Heliconius charitonius) the official state butterfly of Florida.
The distinctive black and yellow butterfly is found primarily in the southern United States from
Texas to Florida, where it is found in the Cypress hammocks and thickets in the Everglades
National Park, according to the 1989 edition of Florida's Butterflies and Other Insects.
It usually isn't found in North Florida, although it has been seen as far north as Gainesville.
Right: Zebra Longwing (Heliconius charitonius)
The Zebra Longwing, with an averge life span of three months or more, is one of few
butterflies that eat pollen. That protein-rich food enables the female to lay a higher than
average number of eggs - up to 1,000 or more during her lifetime.
The Zebra Longwing caterpillars feed on passionvine
(passiflora sp.) and the adult butterflies, though more comfortable in wooded areas, can
be lured into the garden by the presence of this plant.
On Friday, April 26, at a ceremony in Tallahassee, Governor Lawton Chiles signed the bill into
law making the designation official.
(In the News April 1996)
Snow Kills Hibernating Monarchs
A rare snowstorm Saturday in the forests of western Mexico was killing millions of Monarch
butterflies, a leading environmentalist said.
By midday, seven inches of snow covered the ground, and it was still falling in the five Monarch
sanctuaries in the mountains of Michoacan state, the species' principal wintering ground
One third of the 11 million to 13 million Monarchs hibernating
in the region could be dead by today, according to an estimate by Homero Aridjis of the Group
of 100, Mexico's principal environmental organization. He said Group biologists were on the
scene but there was little they could do.
Left: Monarch (Danaus plexippus)
The vivid orange-and-black Monarchs fly about 3,000 miles south from Canada and the United
States every year to hibernate in the stands of oyamel trees, similar in appearance to mulberry
trees. They return north in the spring.
It rains often in the area, but snow is rare. The last big snowfall, in February 1992, killed 70 to 90
percent of the butterflies wintering, Aridjis said. The species has yet to recover.
(In the News 31 December, 1995)
Blue Butterfly Returns
Rising from the "dead" to dispute its own obituary, a fragile blue butterfly believed to be extinct
for more than a decade has been rediscovered on U.S. Navy land in the San Pedro area of Los
Angeles.
Scientists had thought all Palos Verdes blue butterflies had been destroyed by
development years ago, and virtually everyone had given up hope and stopped looking for
the endangered species.
But now, in a surprising find, reinforcing that nature will always mystify scientists, about 100 of
the graceful butterflies have been found flitting around a pocket of deerweed at a U.S. Navy
fuel depot next to Chevron's oil refinery.
(In the News 30 March, 1994)
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