Posts Tagged grail species
Presumed Extinct: By Serendipity
Posted by Matthew Bettelheim in Endangered Species, Extinct Species, Field Guide, History, Natural History on February 6, 2014
LOST SPECIES OF THE BAY AREA
Presumed Extinct: sooty crayfish, San Francisco horseshoe shrimp
As with the presumed extinct ivory-billed woodpecker reported in Arkansas in 2004, there is always the chance that a long-lost plant or animal will be rediscovered, thanks to persistent searching and luck. That’s true even in a busy metropolitan area like the San Francisco Bay Area. In May 2005, botanist Michael Park stumbled upon a population of Mount Diablo buckwheat (Eriogonum truncatum) on the slopes of Mount Diablo. The buckwheat was a species long thought extinct, last seen in 1936 by UC Berkeley botany graduate student (and later Save Mount Diablo cofounder) Mary Bowerman.
Spurred by the rediscovery of the buckwheat, it bears asking today which plants and animals endemic to – but presumed extinct in – the San Francisco Bay Area scientists continue to search for in the hope they may still be hanging on by a thread, waiting to be found and protected.
sooty crayfish (Pacifastacus nigrescens)
San Francisco horseshoe shrimp (Lightiella serendipita)
On one weekend every June, deep in the heart of the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta, the town of Isleton comes alive to celebrate its annual Crawdad Festival. Curiously enough, amid the crawdad sausages and jambalayas, the only thing missing is the native crawdad that once inhabited local streams: the sooty crayfish (Pacifastacus nigrescens). Only two other crayfish are native to California’s waters: the Shasta crayfish (P. fortis), a state and federally endangered species found only in Shasta County, and the Klamath signal crayfish (P. leniusculus klamathensis) of far Northern California. From the original 1857 description by marine biologist William Stimpson, we know only that the sooty crayfish was four inches long, blackish, and “common in the vicinity of San Francisco.” It otherwise closely resembled the Shasta crayfish. In the late 1800s the species was reportedly common in Central California streams, including Alameda and Coyote creeks, turning up on occasion in San Francisco markets.
Since the sooty crayfish has vanished without a trace, we can only guess that invasive crayfish introduced for bait and food out-competed their sooty cousins. But that hasn’t stopped ecologist Robert Leidy from looking along the upper reaches of Coyote and Alameda creeks, much of which is pristine land with a native wildlife assemblage. “People rediscover species with periodic regularity in places that are fairly well studied,” says Leidy, “As a field biologist, there’s always that sexy idea of finding something long thought extinct.”
The Bay’s miniature San Francisco horseshoe shrimp (Lightiella serendipita)—one of just five Lightiella species known worldwide—is a cephalocarid, among the most primitive of crustaceans, harkening back 500 million years to the Cambrian period. In 1961, Meredith L. Jones, from New York’s American Museum of Natural History, dredged four of these tiny, eyeless shrimp from the muddy sand bottom of the Bay off Point Richmond, making it the only known benthic (bottom dwelling), non-fish species endemic to the Bay. Five more were found in 1987 and 1988 off Brooks Island and Coyote Point, but none have been seen since, despite a California Academy of Sciences “bio-blitz” in search of bottom-dwelling Bay creatures in 2000. Academy curator Rich Mooi says mud samples were taken throughout the Bay where Lightiella had been reported. “I would have expected that if they were there, we would have seen them,” says Mooi. But, he adds, “[the shrimp] are tiny, they’re hard to see, and people hate going through mud.” Then Mooi hints that Lightiella just might be lurking, overlooked, in one of the academy’s many jars of Bay mud, awaiting another sifting. Any takers?
Field Guide to the Lost Species of the Bay Area
SPECIES: sooty crayfish (Pacifastacus nigrescens)
LISTING STATUS: none
FIRST/LAST RECORDED: 1857/late 1800s
RANGE: reported specifically in Alameda Creek, Coyote Creek, Steamboat Slough, and other Bay tributary streams
HABITAT: freshwater Bay tributary streams
FIELD NOTES: the sooty crayfish hasn’t been seen in over 100 years; the sooty crayfish closely resembles its cousin the Shasta crayfish (Pacifastacus fortis) but is blackish, smaller in size (4 inches long), and has more slender, hairless hands (claws)
RESOURCES:
Crayfishes (Astacidae) of North and Middle America, by Horton H. Hobbs
Ask the Naturalist—All the Crawdads You Can Eat (Bay Nature), March 13, 1996, by Michael Ellis
_______________________________________________
SPECIES: San Francisco horseshoe shrimp (Lightiella serendipita)
LISTING STATUS: none
FIRST/LAST RECORDED: 1961/1988
RANGE: known only from San Francisco Bay at Point Richmond, Brooks Island, Coyote Point
HABITAT: muddy sand bottom
FIELD NOTES: although extensive sampling has been done to rediscover this shrimp at its type locality and other collection locations, “searching” for this species amounts to sorting through Bay mud; mud-raker Richard Mooi of the California Academy of Sciences has generously offered would-be shrimp seekers the opportunity to pick through jars of mud—with the proper training, of course—to make sure no horseshoe shrimp have been overlooked— Reach Mooi at (415)321-8270.
RESOURCES:
Animals of San Francisco Bay: A Field Guide to Its Common Benthic Species, by Rich Mooi, Victor G. Smith, Margaret Gould Burke, Terrence M. Gosliner, Christina N. Piotrowski, and Rebecca K. Ritger
The account excerpted above was originally featured in the October/December 2007 issue of Bay Nature magazine.
Illustrations by Devin Cecil-Wishing.
Presumed Extinct: Fish Out of Water
Posted by Matthew Bettelheim in Endangered Species, Extinct Species, Field Guide, Fisheries, History, Natural History on May 20, 2013
LOST SPECIES OF THE BAY AREA
Presumed Extinct: Clear Lake splittail, thicktail chub
As with the presumed extinct ivory-billed woodpecker reported in Arkansas in 2004, there is always the chance that a long-lost plant or animal will be rediscovered, thanks to persistent searching and luck. That’s true even in a busy metropolitan area like the San Francisco Bay Area. In May 2005, botanist Michael Park stumbled upon a population of Mount Diablo buckwheat (Eriogonum truncatum) on the slopes of Mount Diablo. The buckwheat was a species long thought extinct, last seen in 1936 by UC Berkeley botany graduate student (and later Save Mount Diablo cofounder) Mary Bowerman.
Spurred by the rediscovery of the buckwheat, it bears asking today which plants and animals endemic to – but presumed extinct in – the San Francisco Bay Area scientists continue to search for in the hope they may still be hanging on by a thread, waiting to be found and protected.
Clear Lake splittail (Pogonichthys ciscoides)
thicktail chub (Gila crassicauda)
With major fisheries teetering on the brink of collapse, it’s unlikely that many people have noticed the plight of two Bay Area endemic minnows that haven’t touched a creel in 30 years or more. The Clear Lake splittail (Pogonichthys ciscoides), the lake-bound cousin of the Sacramento splittail (P. macrolepidotus), is said to have schooled in great numbers in Clear Lake, the largest natural lake in California. In April and May, the eight-inch-long splittail would venture into upstream tributaries to spawn. Three weeks later, the young would return to the lake to feed on zooplankton and the native Clear Lake gnat in silvery schools that led early settlers to call them “silversides.” In the early 1940s, Clear Lake splittail populations plummeted, but it wasn’t until 1973 that the fish was belatedly recognized as a species. At about that time splittail vanished from the lake, replaced by non-native bluegill and, ironically, the inland silverside (Menidia beryllina). The latter was introduced in 1967 by the state to control vast clouds of annoying but harmless Clear Lake gnats, and it likely outcompeted Clear Lake splittail for shallow shoreline habitat. Other factors that may have tipped the species toward extinction were the channelization and the diversion of Clear Lake’s tributaries, where the splittail spawned.
Although its bones dominate Native American middens along the Sacramento River, Putah Creek, and the Pajaro-Salinas drainage, the thicktail chub (Gila crassicauda) is even less well known. This four-inch-long chub was also found in Clear Lake, the Delta, the Napa River, Alameda Creek, and several other Bay tributaries. Up until the late 19th century, thicktail chub weren’t uncommon in San Francisco fish markets, and their remains have been recovered from 19th-century Chinese privies in the city’s Mission District. But as early as 1884 their populations were reportedly waning. In 1957, the last known specimen was caught in the Sacramento River near Rio Vista. Throughout the species’ range, stream diversions and modifications, the loss of tule beds and shallow lowland lakes, and the introduction of largemouth bass and other nonnative predators likely drove the thicktail chub to extinction.
Since both the San Francisco estuary and Clear Lake are regularly sampled, UC Davis fisheries biologist Peter Moyle says the likelihood of finding either species is close to zero. But Robert Leidy, an ecologist with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, remains optimistic about the thicktail chub. “It could possibly show up in any part of its historical habitat,” says Leidy. “It could be upper Coyote Creek, it could be the Pajaro drainage, it could be in North Bay marshes or the Petaluma River.”
Field Guide to the Lost Species of the Bay Area
SPECIES: Clear Lake splittail (Pogonichthys ciscoides)
LISTING STATUS: none
FIRST/LAST RECORDED: ~1930/~1970
RANGE: known only from Clear Lake in Lake County
HABITAT: Clear Lake and its tributary waters, plus an outlying record from Cache Creek (downstream of Clear Lake)
FIELD NOTES: a lake-bound cousin of the Sacramento splittail (P. macrolepidotus), Clear Lake’s shoreline splittail wasn’t officially described until 1973, approximately the time it went extinct; aside from geographic isolation, the differences between the species are morphological; compared to the Sacramento splittail, the Clear Lake splittail has more gill rakers, more lateral line scales, smaller fins, a terminal mouth with absent or reduced barbels, and a relatively symmetrical tail fin
RESOURCES:
Inland Fishes of California, by Peter B. Moyle
Field Guide to Freshwater Fishes of California, March 13, 1996, by Samuel M. McGinnis
_______________________________________________
SPECIES: thicktail chub (Gila crassicauda)
LISTING STATUS: none
FIRST/LAST RECORDED: present in Native American middens/1957
RANGE: reported specifically in Sacramento River, Putah Creek, Pajaro-Salinas drainage, Clear Lake, San Francisco Bay, Coyote Creek, Central Valley lowlands, and Bay tributary streams
HABITAT: lowland lakes, sloughs, slow-moving river stretches, and surface waters of the San Francisco Bay
FIELD NOTES: thicktail chub remains are reportedly common in Native American middens along the Sacramento River, and have been recovered from 19th-century Chinese privies in San Francisco’s Mission District; in the 19th century the fish was commonly sold in San Francisco fish markets and was served in Sacramento saloons; compared to other chub, the thicktail chub is a heavy-bodied fish with a small, cone-shaped head, greenish brown to purplish black back, and yellowish sides and belly
RESOURCES:
Inland Fishes of California, by Peter B. Moyle
Field Guide to Freshwater Fishes of California, March 13, 1996, by Samuel M. McGinnis
The account excerpted above was originally featured in the October/December 2007 issue of Bay Nature magazine.
Illustrations by Devin Cecil-Wishing.
Presumed Extinct: Address Unknown
Posted by Matthew Bettelheim in Botany, Endangered Species, Extinct Species, Field Guide, History, Natural History on January 8, 2013
LOST SPECIES OF THE BAY AREA
Presumed Extinct: Palo Alto lost thistle, Pitkin Marsh Indian paintbrush
As with the presumed extinct ivory-billed woodpecker reported in Arkansas in 2004, there is always the chance that a long-lost plant or animal will be rediscovered, thanks to persistent searching and luck. That’s true even in a busy metropolitan area like the San Francisco Bay Area. In May 2005, botanist Michael Park stumbled upon a population of Mount Diablo buckwheat (Eriogonum truncatum) on the slopes of Mount Diablo. The buckwheat was a species long thought extinct, last seen in 1936 by UC Berkeley botany graduate student (and later Save Mount Diablo cofounder) Mary Bowerman.
Spurred by the rediscovery of the buckwheat, it bears asking today which plants and animals endemic to – but presumed extinct in – the San Francisco Bay Area scientists continue to search for in the hope they may still be hanging on by a thread, waiting to be found and protected.
Palo Alto lost thistle (Cirsium praeteriens)
Pitkin Marsh Indian paintbrush (Castilleja uliginosa)
The little that’s known about the Palo Alto lost thistle (Cirsium praeteriens) would fit on a postage stamp. This elusive white-flowered thistle was collected by lawyer and botanist Joseph Whipple Congdon in 1897 and 1901 at a location identified simply as “Palo Alto,” roughly mapped at the present-day site of the Palo Alto post office. “It seems remarkable,” wrote Harvard botanist James Francis Macbride, “that this splendid thistle should have escaped notice so long since it grows at the very door . . . of one of the principal herbaria [Stanford’s Dudley Herbarium] of the Pacific coast.” Since we know nothing about the thistle’s habitat, botanists like California Polytechnic’s David Keil, the de facto expert on the species, don’t know where to begin looking. “I would guess that it would be a wetland species, since a number of the other native thistles occur with their feet wet,” he explains, “[but] I won’t go looking for it because I don’t know where to start. Going into an urban area to find a plant is a real challenge.”
The story of the Pitkin Marsh Indian paintbrush (Castilleja uliginosa) is one fraught with tragedy. It was first collected in 1937 by botanist John Thomas Howell from two freshwater marshes near Sebastopol. At Trembley’s Marsh, the paintbrush plants were reportedly common between 1937 and 1950, but vanished altogether the following year. They persisted longer at Pitkin’s Marsh, but by 1971, only a single plant remained. The marsh was fenced off in 1978, and in 1984 the paintbrush’s rhododendron host plant—paintbrushes live in part by parasitizing other plants—was trimmed to reduce shading on the single remaining paintbrush stem. Four weak stems survived but were soon overtaken by rushes and sedges. These too were trimmed, but February rains in 1986 flooded the marsh, wiping the palette clean of all traces of the Pitkin Marsh Indian paintbrush in the wild (some plants still grow at the University of California Botanical Garden at Berkeley).
Field Guide to the Lost Species of the Bay Area
SPECIES: Palo Alto lost thistle (Cirsium praeteriens)
LISTING STATUS: CNPS List 1A (presumed extinctin California)
FIRST/LAST RECORDED: 1897/1901
RANGE: known only from Palo Alto in Santa Clara County
HABITAT: unknown
FIELD NOTES: with nothing but “Palo Alto” recorded for the type specimen’s collection location, botanists know nothing about this thistle’s preferred habitat; notes to the effect that the species represents an introduction from the Old World are unsubstantiated and the species is still recognized today as a native California thistle
RESOURCES:
CNPS Inventory of Rare and Endangered Plants of California, Online Edition, 2007, by the Rare Plant Scientific Advisory Committee, California Native Plant Society
Digitized type specimen at Harvard University Herbarium Index of Botanical Species
Flora of North America, Flora of North America Committee
_______________________________________________
LISTING STATUS: state Endangered; CNPS List 1A (presumed extinct in California)
FIRST/LAST RECORDED:1937/1986
RANGE: Pitkin Marsh, Trembley’s Marsh in Sonoma County
HABITAT: marshy meadows
FIELD NOTES: the Pitkin Marsh Indian paintbrush grows solely in association with rhododendron plants in a type of hemiparasitic relationship; all known plants were reported on private land, which has prevented further surveys to determine if any unrecorded plants have persisted
RESOURCES:
Indian Paintbrush: The Sunset Shades of Castilleja (Bay Nature), by Geoffrey Coffey
CNPS Inventory of Rare and Endangered Plants of California, Online Edition, 2007, by the Rare Plant Scientific Advisory Committee, California Native Plant Society
The account excerpted above was originally featured in the October/December 2007 issue of Bay Nature magazine.
Illustrations by Devin Cecil-Wishing.
Presumed Extinct: 20 k-rats
Posted by Matthew Bettelheim in Endangered Species, Extinct Species, Field Guide, History, Mammalogy, Natural History on May 7, 2012
LOST SPECIES OF THE BAY AREA
Presumed Extinct: Berkeley kangaroo rat
As with the presumed extinct ivory-billed woodpecker reported in Arkansas in 2004, there is always the chance that a long-lost plant or animal will be rediscovered, thanks to persistent searching and luck. That’s true even in a busy metropolitan area like the San Francisco Bay Area. In May 2005, botanist Michael Park stumbled upon a population of Mount Diablo buckwheat (Eriogonum truncatum) on the slopes of Mount Diablo. The buckwheat was a species long thought extinct, last seen in 1936 by UC Berkeley botany graduate student (and later Save Mount Diablo cofounder) Mary Bowerman.
Spurred by the rediscovery of the buckwheat, it bears asking today which plants and animals endemic to – but presumed extinct in – the San Francisco Bay Area scientists continue to search for in the hope they may still be hanging on by a thread, waiting to be found and protected.
Berkeley kangaroo rat (Dipodomys heermanni berkeleyensis)
It was a neighborhood cat, not a biologist, that first collected a Berkeley kangaroo rat (Dipodomys heermanni berkeleyensis) in 1918 atop Dwight Way Hill in Berkeley, or so the story goes. The specimen found its way to Joseph Grinnell, director of the Museum of Vertebrate Zoology in Berkeley, who later described the subspecies based on this and other k-rats from the Berkeley hills. K-rats were later reported in isolated pockets throughout the East Bay hills; the last confirmed one was collected at the Calaveras Reservoir in 1940. All told, 20 individual Berkeley k-rats have been collected and confirmed. But there’s only so much that can be gleaned from museum specimens. About its preferred habitat, we know only what was scribbled in the field notes of the original collectors: bare ridgtops, rocky outcrops, thin soils, scattered chaparral, and small annual grasses. Although too little is known about the Berkeley k-rat to point fingers, there’s a consensus among biologists that urban development and domestic house cats likely took the hop out of the rats’ step.
Since the early 1980s, biologist Gary Beeman has been hot on the k-rat’s tail, plastering “WANTED” posters throughout Mount Diablo State Park seeking reports of the kangaroo rat’s existence, dead or alive. Over the years, reports of alleged k-rat sightings have trickled in, including several trapped and released in the late 1970s, one caught at the base of Mount Diablo and kept as a pet in the 1980s, and one “moused” by a Blackhawk house cat in the 1990s. As with any Bigfoot sighting, there were neither photos nor bodies to back these claims.
Since 2000, East Bay Regional Park District biologist Joe DiDonato has trapped eight k-rats during surveys near Ohlone Regional Wilderness. These Ohlone k-rats bear markings of both the Berkeley k-rat and its closest kin, the Tulare kangaroo rat (D. h. tularensis), and DiDonato is still looking for someone to perform the DNA analysis necessary to identify them definitively. “Until you get genetic data to disprove [berkeleyensis], you have to go on the current science, and the current science is the historic data Grinnell collected.” And based on Grinnell’s range maps, the small, isolated fringe colonies DiDonato has discovered are berkeleyensis.
Despite DiDonato’s discoveries, Beeman continues to search for indisputable proof of the Berkeley k-rat in the core of its original range, where its status as berkeleyensis can’t be questioned. With so many unconfirmed sightings well within the species’ range, Beeman is confident the species will turn up. Where? Alhambra Ridge, Blackhawk Ridge, Lime Ridge, Mount Diablo’s lower slopes, the hills above Crockett, and North Canyon Road in San Ramon are at the top of his list of likely locales.
Field Guide to the Lost Species of the Bay Area
SPECIES: Berkeley kangaroo rat (Dipodomys heermanni berkeleyensis)
LISTING STATUS: Species of special concern
FIRST/LAST RECORDED: 1918/1940
RANGE: Berkeley (Strawberry Canyon), Mt. Diablo, and the East Bay Hills (Orinda Park Pool, Siesta Valley, Calaveras Reservoir)
HABITAT: bare ridge tops, rocky outcrops, thin soils, scattered chaparral, and small annual grasses
FIELD NOTES: the Berkeley kangaroo rat closely resembles the Tulare kangaroo rat (D. h. tularensis), but can be distinguished by generally darker hairs, especially along the back, as well as darker broad stripes along the sides and tail, and smaller patches of lighter hairs on the ears and face; look for k-rat hunter Gary Beeman’s “Wanted!” posters in kiosks surrounding Mount Diablo State Park; if you want to tip off Beeman about a potential k-rat in your neighborhood, you can reach him at (925)284-2602
RESOURCES:
Draft Recovery Plan for Chaparral and Scrub Community Species East of San Francisco Bay, California, by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service
The account excerpted above was originally featured in the October/December 2007 issue of Bay Nature magazine.
Illustrations by Devin Cecil-Wishing.
Presumed Extinct: On a Wing and a Prayer
Posted by Matthew Bettelheim in Endangered Species, Extinct Species, Field Guide, History, Natural History on March 4, 2012
LOST SPECIES OF THE BAY AREA
Presumed Extinct: Strohbeen’s Parnassian butterfly, lotis blue butterfly
As with the presumed extinct ivory-billed woodpecker reported in Arkansas in 2004, there is always the chance that a long-lost plant or animal will be rediscovered, thanks to persistent searching and luck. That’s true even in a busy metropolitan area like the San Francisco Bay Area. In May 2005, botanist Michael Park stumbled upon a population of Mount Diablo buckwheat (Eriogonum truncatum) on the slopes of Mount Diablo. The buckwheat was a species long thought extinct, last seen in 1936 by UC Berkeley botany graduate student (and later Save Mount Diablo cofounder) Mary Bowerman.
Spurred by the rediscovery of the buckwheat, it bears asking today which plants and animals endemic to – but presumed extinct in – the San Francisco Bay Area scientists continue to search for in the hope they may still be hanging on by a thread, waiting to be found and protected.
Strohbeen’s Parnassian butterfly (Parnassius clodius strohbeeni)
lotis blue butterfly (Lycaeides idas lotis)
In the days before Lombard Street and the Golden Gate Bridge, the endemic Xerces blue butterfly (Glaucopsyche xerces) called the San Francisco Peninsula its home. Only 23 years after its description in 1852, lepidopterist Herman Behr noted its incipient extinction as the city overtook the sand dunes. At the Presidio’s Lobos Creek in 1941, future UC Davis entomology professor W. Harry Lange unknowingly netted what would turn out to be the last recorded Xerces and popped it in a killing jar. Revisiting the Presidio a few years before his death, Lange lamented: “I always thought there would be more. I was wrong.”
Two more local butterflies followed the Xerces into oblivion. The Sthenele satyr (Cercyonis sthenele sthenele) and Pheres blue (Plebejus icariodes pheres) were collected by Forty Niner-turned-entomologist Pierre Joseph Michel Lorquin around 1850 in the city’s westerly dunes. By 1880, the Sthenele satyr had disappeared. About the Pheres blue we know only that it was reported at 14th Avenue and Taraval Street, and on the dunes west of 20th Avenue. The first population was extirpated around 1926, the second by 1940. By 1950, the Pheres blue had vanished.
In the wake of San Francisco’s doomed dune butterflies — the Xerces, Pheres, and Sthenele — two additional butterflies may have fluttered their last flight within living memory. In the Santa Cruz Mountains, Strohbeen’s Parnassian butterfly (Parnassius clodius strohbeeni) glided through the redwoods, frequenting well-lit canyon bottoms and stream zones, unique in itself since other species of Parnassian inhabit higher elevations. Strohbeen’s Parnassian was first collected in 1923 by John Strohbeen during a fishing trip in the Santa Cruz Mountains at a site later destroyed by road construction. The butterfly’s larval host plant, western bleeding heart (Dicentra formosa), later waned in numbers due to over-collection for the nursery trade. In 1956, entomologist James Wilson Tilden observed the last known living members of this species — a small colony in the vicinity of Bonny Doon atop Mount Ben Lomond.
A more likely candidate for survival is the federally endangered lotis blue butterfly (Lycaeides idas lotis). The lotis blue was described in 1879 by entomologist Joseph Albert Lintner based on a specimen labeled “Mendocino” from the collection of renowned lepidopterist William Henry Edwards. Who wielded the net remains a mystery, one that vexed even novelist and amateur lepidopterist Vladimir Nabokov when he revised the taxonomy of North American blues in the 1940s. The lotis blue frequented Mendocino and Sonoma counties’ wet meadows and sphagnum-willow bogs. It’s not known what drove the species toward extinction, but urban development, fire suppression, drought, and groundwater drawdown are all likely suspects. Today, suitable habitat for the species is restricted to a single bog on PG&E land in Mendocino’s Pygmy Forest south of Fort Bragg. The lotis blue was last seen there in 1983, and its suspected host plant, seaside bird’s-foot trefoil (Lotus formosis-simus) — though otherwise common — hasn’t been seen there since 2000.
Over the years, entomologist Richard Arnold has kept an eye out for sun-dappled forest clearings or boggy spots that might harbor long-lost butterflies. “You always hope that maybe there’s some place you haven’t been yet,” he says. “The problem is, you run into small stands of food plant, but not the large stands needed to sustain a population.” With so many people tuned in to butterflies, “it’s unlikely a butterfly could go unnoticed for years on end,” says retired UC Berkeley entomologist Jerry Powell. But it happens. In 1990, Arnold was part of a team that happened on the only known population of federally endangered Behren’s silverspot butterfly (Speyeria zerene behrensii) near Point Arena, a species that hadn’t been seen in many years.
Field Guide to the Lost Species of the Bay Area
SPECIES: Strohbeen’s Parnassian butterfly (Parnassius clodius strohbeeni)
LISTING STATUS: none
FIRST/LAST RECORDED: 1923/~1956
RANGE: known only from the Santa Cruz Mountains in Santa Cruz County
HABITAT: host plant is western bleeding heart (Dicentra formosa); redwood forests, well-lit canyon bottoms, stream zones
FIELD NOTES: of the Parnassian butterflies (P. clodius), Strohbeen’s Parnassian is a lighter sub-species restricted to the Santa Cruz Mountains; its closest cousins are found in the high inner North Coast Range, the Klamath Mountains, and the west slope of the Sierra Nevada; the Strohbeen’s Parnassian’s flight period is late May to early July
RESOURCES:
Field Guide to Butterflies of the San Francisco Bay and Sacramento Valley Regions, by Arthur M. Shapiro and Timothy D. Manolis
_______________________________________________
SPECIES: lotis blue butterfly (Lycaeides idas lotis)
LISTING STATUS: federally endangered
FIRST/LAST RECORDED: 1879/1983
RANGE: scattered locations throughout Mendocino and Sonoma County; last known from a single location on PG&E land in Mendocino County’s Pygmy Forest
HABITAT: suspected host plant is seaside bird’s-foot trefoil (Lotus formosissimus); wet meadows, spagnum-willow bogs
FIELD NOTES: the lotis blue is often described as a larger version of its fellow blue, the Melissa blue butterfly (Lycaeides melissa); the lotis blue’s flight period is mid-April to June
RESOURCES:
Field Guide to Butterflies of the San Francisco Bay and Sacramento Valley Regions, by Arthur M. Shapiro and Timothy D. Manolis
Lotis Blue Draft Recovery Plan, March 13, 1996, by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service
The account excerpted above was originally featured in the October/December 2007 issue of Bay Nature magazine.
Illustrations by Devin Cecil-Wishing.