At the bottom of the box,
Mar. 20th, 2003 09:15 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
featherynscaleshe found a fragile thing, winged and radiant. She picked it up and cradled it gently, then she opened her hands and the tiny wonder took wing. And so it was that Hope was born into the world.
Scientists create first captive-bred Miami Blue butterflies
FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. - (AP) -- Scientists have bred the rare Miami Blue butterfly for the first time in captivity, offering hope to a species in imminent danger of extinction.
A male and a female butterfly emerged from chrysalises Friday in a lab at the University of Florida. Those butterflies have mated and biologists are waiting for the female to lay eggs.
''We hope, if everything goes well, to have hundreds of Miami Blues in captivity,'' said Jaret Daniels, assistant director of the university's McGuire Center for Lepidoptera Research.
Fewer than 50 adults exist of the once-common butterfly, which today is confined to Bahia Honda Key in the Florida Keys.
The state issued an emergency endangered species protection order in December for the Miami Blues, making it a third-degree felony to kill or catch the cornflower-colored butterflies.
The butterfly decline could be caused by urban development, mosquito spraying and the dwindling numbers of a native species of ant that had protected them from predators.
Scientists are looking for places to reintroduce the butterflies, such as a state park. The final destination must be protected from mosquito spraying and have a healthy population of nickerbean, the vine-like shrub Miami Blues live on as caterpillars.
But it is difficult to match the specific habitats required for butterflies and attempts to reintroduce other species of butterflies to the wild have failed about half the time, said Jeffrey Glassberg, president of the North American Butterfly Association.
''Butterflies are in balance with the rest of nature,'' Glassberg said. ``They're very precariously balanced. They're on the knife edge.''
Scientists create first captive-bred Miami Blue butterflies
FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. - (AP) -- Scientists have bred the rare Miami Blue butterfly for the first time in captivity, offering hope to a species in imminent danger of extinction.
A male and a female butterfly emerged from chrysalises Friday in a lab at the University of Florida. Those butterflies have mated and biologists are waiting for the female to lay eggs.
''We hope, if everything goes well, to have hundreds of Miami Blues in captivity,'' said Jaret Daniels, assistant director of the university's McGuire Center for Lepidoptera Research.
Fewer than 50 adults exist of the once-common butterfly, which today is confined to Bahia Honda Key in the Florida Keys.
The state issued an emergency endangered species protection order in December for the Miami Blues, making it a third-degree felony to kill or catch the cornflower-colored butterflies.
The butterfly decline could be caused by urban development, mosquito spraying and the dwindling numbers of a native species of ant that had protected them from predators.
Scientists are looking for places to reintroduce the butterflies, such as a state park. The final destination must be protected from mosquito spraying and have a healthy population of nickerbean, the vine-like shrub Miami Blues live on as caterpillars.
But it is difficult to match the specific habitats required for butterflies and attempts to reintroduce other species of butterflies to the wild have failed about half the time, said Jeffrey Glassberg, president of the North American Butterfly Association.
''Butterflies are in balance with the rest of nature,'' Glassberg said. ``They're very precariously balanced. They're on the knife edge.''
