Xerces blue
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Xerces blue ( Glaucopsyche xerces ) |
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| Glaucopsyche xerces | ||||||||||||
| ( Boisduval , 1852) |
The Xerces blue ( Glaucopsyche xerces ) is an extinct species of butterfly from the family of the blue (Lycaenidae). It was endemic to the coastal sand dunes of the Sunset District on the San Francisco Peninsula , on a stretch of land that is now part of the Golden Gate National Recreation Area . It was first described and documented in 1852 under the name Lycaena xerces . The type epithet is derived from the French spelling of Xerxes , the Greek name of the Persian kings Xerxes I and Xerxes II.from the fifth century BC. Some authors consider it a subspecies of Glaucopsyche lygdamus .
features
The wingspan of the Imago was 29 to 36 mm. There were several color variations, with the males at the top of the wings usually blue-violet with a whitish or silvery sheen and the females brown with a bluish tinge. The underside of the wings ranged from light gray with black dotted white eye spots to dark gray with white spots.
In the caterpillars , the color was mostly light green with a darker line on the back, distinct yellow slashes on the sides and a light line along each side.
distribution and habitat
The Xerces bluer inhabited solid sand dunes with low vegetation, xerophytic grasslands and wastelands. Well-known sites were the Lawn Mountain Cemetery, the Presidio Military Base (west of the Naval Hospital and north of Lobos Creek), several locations in the Sunset District (including the western slopes of the Twin Peaks ) and the area around Lake Merced . From 1919 the species' habitat was limited to a few localities.
Way of life
The flight time extended from March to April. A generation was formed. The main food of the bluebirds consisted of the horn clover species Acmispon glaber and the lupine species Lupinus arboreus . The loss of the horned clover, which the moth fed on in the larval stage, is believed to be one of the reasons for the species' extinction. The plant could not survive in the disturbed soils due to human development and was no longer available to the Xerces blue. The lupine, the other vegetative food source of the Xerces blues, was not suitable for the caterpillars.
die out
Entomologist Hans Hermann Behr wrote a letter to his colleague Herman Strecker as early as 1875
"L. Xerces is now extinct in the San Francisco area. The place where it used to be has been turned into building land, and no insect can exist between German chickens and Irish pigs except the louse and the flea. "
The Xerces blue became extinct due to habitat loss as a result of urbanization . The last sightings are given for 1941 or 1943.
Preserved specimens are located in the California Academy of Sciences , the Bohart Museum of Entomology , the Field Museum of Natural History , the Florida Museum of Natural History , the Harvard Museum of Natural History, and other ancient collections in the United States.
In 1971 the lepidopterist Robert M. Pyle founded the Xerces Society and named it after the Xerces blue. The aim of this nature conservation organization is to save other butterflies and invertebrates from extinction.
Trivia
The Xerces program library for parsing, modifying and generating XML was named after the blue Xerces.
Web links
- Glaucospyche xerces inthe IUCN Red List of Threatened Species 2021.1. Listed by: World Conservation Monitoring Center, 1996. Retrieved April 9, 2021.
- The Xerces Blue Butterfly
- In the Shadow of the Xerces Blue
Individual evidence
- ↑ a b c University of California Agriculture and Natural Resources: And Then There Were None: Bohart Museum Remembering Xerces Blue Butterfly In Effort to Help Preserve Other Species . Retrieved April 9, 2021.
- ↑ xerxes | Origin and meaning of xerxes by Online Etymology Dictionary ( en ) Retrieved April 9, 2021.
- ^ Butterflies of America .
- ^ Butterflies and Moths of North America .
- ↑ a b c J. W. Tilden: San Francisco's Vanishing Butterflies . In: The Lepidopterists' News . 1956, pp. 113-115.
- ↑ Quoted in: F. Martin Brown: Letters from Dr. HH Behr to Herman Strecker, Journal of the Lepidopterists' Society , 22 (1), 1968, pp. 57-62.
- ↑ JS Garth, JW Tilden: California Butterflies . University of California Press, 1986, ISBN 0-520-05249-8 , p. 150.
- ^ Joyce Gross, Daniel Rubinoff, Jerry A. Powell: Field guide to California insects . Second ed. Oakland, California 2020, ISBN 978-0-520-96357-3 , pp. 407 .
- ^ About the Xerces Society | Xerces Society . Retrieved April 9, 2021.