THE QUINO CHECKERSPOT BUTTERFLY
By: Kevin Hegyi
Throughout the regions from Western Riverside, Southern San Diego and
Northern Baja California, The Quino Checkerspot butterfly or E editha quico,
makes it home on costal bluffs or mesa flatlands. A member of the Nymphalidaie family, the Quino offers a
beautiful red black and cream checkerboard patter on the dorsal or upper part
of the wing as well as a heavy red and cream pattern on the later side. In the
larvae stages, the Quico Checkerspot is predominately yellow, but then starts
to develop grey and black markings before accepting its familiar coat. The
Quino checkerspot butterfly produces one generation of adults per year and
consists of a specifc 4-6 week flying period spanning from January to March or
even as late as May if weather conditions suffice. In relation to flying, an
interesting fact about the Quino Checkerspot is that it is an ectothermic
species meaning that it uses air temperature and solar energy to regulate body
temperature levels in order to provide enough thermal power for flight. While in
flight, Quino’s cruise relatively close to the ground in a slower, winding pattern.
In regards to population, that of the Quino checkerspot butterfly is considered "patchy", distributing itself across a wider scale of smaller populations, generating a term called metapopulations. In regards to population dynamics itself, the recovery plan states that there is no "quantitative analysis of a model to fit the QCB's population dynamics." However, it then states that the QCB falls into the category of thus being resilient to metapopulations, meaning that when subject to disturbance, resilient populations maintain their strength over time, but tend to fluctuate in size. The QCB has survived under such terrible geographical conditions such as drought and has thus been able to have a large amount of the species to repopulate when conditions become favorable again. Although this seems like a solid state for the Quino checkerspot, the dramatic increase in population leads to a huge extirpation for when a habitat is degraded, the number of species extirpated is far greater, resulting in a greater overall loss of the butterfly.
The Quino Checkerspot butterfly was listed under the endangered species act on January 16th, 1997 because of mainly habitat loss, degradation and fragmentation as a direct result of human development and practices. The species dropped 50-75% due to subtopics such as:
Nonnative plants: New plants (annual grasses and forbs) reduce abundance of food for Quino
Loss and Fragmentation of Landscape connectivity: Urban Development has destroyed 90 percent of their habitat
Off-road vehicle activity: Compacts soil, creates trails for nonnative plants to sprout up
Grazing: larval host plant destruction, compaction of soil, trampling of egg and larval
Fire: caused by increase in human population and increased habitat fragmentation that let more flammable non, native plants inhabit the area
Enhanced Soil Nitrogen: makes the soil fertility weak, due to human activities such as the burning of fossil fuels
Increasing Atmospheric Carbon Dioxide Concentration: increases plant photosynthesis which results in canopy closure of butterfly's habitat
Concerning a recovery plan, the main goal documented for that of the Quino Checkerspot butterfly is that of returning its status to "threatened" rather then endangered. The biggest factors contributing towards success is that the habitat and landscape connectivity of the QCB must be preserved of current population distributions. Also, resilient populations (mentioned above) must be maintained as well as up to date research must be conducted. Obviously, protection of the habitat let of the Quino is a necessity but the recovery plan goes into more depth with the process, mentioning that an outreach community is to be formed to therefore asses the damages that humans have caused to the Quino Checkerspot butterfly.
Sources
http://ecos.fws.gov/docs/recovery_plan/030917.pdf
http://www.urbanwildlands.org/Resources/Mattonietal1997.pdf
Fire: caused by increase in human population and increased habitat fragmentation that let more flammable non, native plants inhabit the area
Enhanced Soil Nitrogen: makes the soil fertility weak, due to human activities such as the burning of fossil fuels
Increasing Atmospheric Carbon Dioxide Concentration: increases plant photosynthesis which results in canopy closure of butterfly's habitat
Concerning a recovery plan, the main goal documented for that of the Quino Checkerspot butterfly is that of returning its status to "threatened" rather then endangered. The biggest factors contributing towards success is that the habitat and landscape connectivity of the QCB must be preserved of current population distributions. Also, resilient populations (mentioned above) must be maintained as well as up to date research must be conducted. Obviously, protection of the habitat let of the Quino is a necessity but the recovery plan goes into more depth with the process, mentioning that an outreach community is to be formed to therefore asses the damages that humans have caused to the Quino Checkerspot butterfly.
Sources
http://ecos.fws.gov/docs/recovery_plan/030917.pdf
http://www.urbanwildlands.org/Resources/Mattonietal1997.pdf
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