ENVIRONMENT BRIEFS
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Endangered Species of the Southern USA:
Did bombardment save a Butterfly? So far
A weekly column by Shawn Gaynor

Saint Francis’ Satyr
Neonympha mitchellii
Status: Endangered, 1995
Range: North Carolina, Cumberland and Hoke counties

DESCRIPTION: Saint Francis’ satyr is a small, dark brown butterfly. The wingspan for the species ranges from 34 to 44 millimeters (Opler and Malikul 1992). Saint Francis’ satyr has conspicuous “eye spots” on the lower surfaces of the wings. These eye spots have a dark maroon-brown center, and within the eye spots are lighter opalescent patches that reflect a silver cast. The border of these dark eye spots is straw-yellow in color, with an outermost border of dark brown. The eye spots are usually round to slightly oval and are well-developed on the fore wing as well as on the hind wing. The spots are accented by two bright orange bands along the posterior wing edges and two somewhat darker orange-brown bands across the central portion of each wing. (Courtesy of USFWS)

The area is known as the “impact zone,” a patch of wetland on the artillery range of the world’s largest military base, Fort Bragg, North Carolina. There, among the sedges, an inconspicuous butterfly, Saint Francis’ Satyr, flutters and feeds. This is the only known population of the species, which stands precariously on the edge of extinction.

The irony of the situation is that the bombardments may have been the saving grace of this butterfly, once thought to be extinct.

Parshall and Kral first described Saint Francis’ Satyr in 1989. However, once the news of the newly described species became public, collectors, looking to profit from the rare butterfly, devastated its population, and the species was thought to have been driven into extinction. Collectors reportedly visited the known site every day throughout the flight periods taking every adult they saw. No protections prevented the collectors from harvesting the insects, and the economic rewards of such a rare sample drove the hunt.

After a wide search, the species was rediscovered in 1992 on the Fort Bragg Army base, where collectors dared not look.

The Carolina Sandhills, contained within the base, harbors pockets of open meadows that once were widespread in eastern North Carolina. These open meadow areas had historically been created by beaver dams, and a natural fire cycle, which kept a closed canopy forest from forming. By the turn of the century though, the beaver had been eradicated in its North Carolina range, and fires, once allowed to burn, were suppressed because of their impact on agriculture. Though beavers where reintroduced in the 1930’s, it was decades before the species recovered in North Carolina, and their traditional role as a keystone species that fundamentally altered the states landscape by creating wetlands remains diminished.

Back on the base, fires from the artillery barrage kept this meadow area open, allowing the butterfly a precarious position in a mock war zone. Fire, however, poses a difficult problem for the butterfly.

“It’s a catch-22,” says Dr. Nick Haddad of the Universtiy of North Carolina. “Butterflies need fire to keep the habitat open. On the other hand, if you burn the habitat and there are butterflies in it, you risk losing the butterflies.”

Little is know of the butterfly’s life cycle. The most glaring gap in information is that the caterpillar that transforms into the Saint Francis’ Satyr has never been observed. Dr. Haddad has been studying the species in some of its population areas on the base, but not in the “impact zone,” where most believe the population remains the highest. According to the US Army, “approximately 80 percent of the known colonies occur in the impact areas.”

Further clouding the future of the butterfly are Defense Department requests that it be made exempt from five federal environmental laws including the Endangered Species Act.

Extensive searches have been made for the Saint Francis’ Satyr in areas of North and South Carolina within similar habitat areas, but no further populations have been reported. In order for the species to recover, the butterfly must find another suitable place to live.

“I’m optimistic that either there is habitat on or off base that is just too far away for natural migration, or that we could restore sites using techniques that people have already used,” Dr. Haddad said.

* Because their populations are highly vulnerable to the threat of collection, locations of this species are kept confidential. Documentation of this species is limited to the Sandhills of North Carolina. Please contact the USFWS if concerns for this species arise.

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