El Segundo blue

El Segundo blue
Scientific classification
Kingdom:Animalia
Clade:Euarthropoda
Class:Insecta
Order:Lepidoptera
Family:Lycaenidae
Genus:Euphilotes
Species: E. battoides
Subspecies: E. b. allyni
Trinomial name
Euphilotes battoides allyni
O. Shields, 1975

The El Segundo blue (Euphilotes battoides allyni) is a butterfly local to a small dune ecosystem in Southern California that used to be a community called Palisades del Rey, close to the Los Angeles International Airport (LAX).[1] In 1976 it became a federally designated endangered species.[2] The El Segundo Blue Butterfly Habitat Preserve next to LAX exists to protect the species. There are only three colonies of this tiny butterfly still in existence. The largest of these is on the grounds of LAX; a further colony exists on a site within the huge Chevron El Segundo oil refinery complex,[3] and the smallest colony is an area of only a few square yards on a local beach. The butterfly lays its eggs on coast buckwheat, which the adults also use as a nectar source. Recently, some nearby beach cities such as Redondo Beach have replaced ice plant growth near the beaches with coast buckwheat, in order to provide the butterflies with more of their natural food source.

Population

2011
 
 111,5
2013
 
 43,4
2015
 
 24,5
Population of the El Segundo Blue per year[4]
(minimum count in 1000 individuals)

Further reading

  • Mattoni, Rudolf H. T., "The Endangered El Segundo Blue Butterfly," The Journal of Research on the Lepidoptera, Volume 29 (4), Winter 1990. PDF 19.5 MB (archive.org)

References

  1. ↑ "Rare Butterflies at LAX". Airport Parking Market. Airport Parking Market. Retrieved 2016-05-11.
  2. ↑ Traci Watson:Rare Butterflies Flying High at Los Angeles Airport, National Geographic, 21 April 2016
  3. ↑ "What We Do". Chevron. Chevron. Retrieved 2016-05-11.
  4. ↑ El Segundo Blue Butterfly Counts. LAX Natural Resources Management, retrieved 10 August 2017


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