WildEarth Guardians

Monday, April 22, 2013
Federal Protection Sought for Imperiled Prairie Butterfly

Regal fritillary threatened by loss of tall-grass prairie habitat
Contact: Taylor Jones (505) 490-5141

Washington, DC – WildEarth Guardians is petitioning the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (Service) to list the regal fritillary under the Endangered Species Act. Regal fritillaries are large prairie butterflies, similar in size to the monarch, with distinctive orange-, black-, and white-patterned wings. Violets are their sole larval hostplant.

“Our prairie species are in trouble, and these once-abundant butterflies are no exception,” said Taylor Jones, Endangered Species Advocate for WildEarth Guardians. “They need the protection of the Endangered Species Act to survive and thrive.”

Like the bison, the regal fritillary is a characteristic indicator species of virgin tall-grass prairie. Historically, the regal fritillary’s range covered more than a million square miles from Nova Scotia, south to northern Georgia, west to the Dakotas, and eastward to the Atlantic coast; today its range is less than half that size and populations are restricted to scattered tall-grass prairie remnants within that range. It has nearly disappeared from former sites east of the Mississippi. Its core range is currently in Kansas, Missouri, and Nebraska, but one of the most robust remaining populations, in Kansas, lacks any legal protections at the state level.

The species’ habitat is affected by a range of threats, including crop agriculture, urban and residential development, road construction and maintenance, herbicide and pesticide use, and ill-timed controlled burns. Among prairie-specialist butterflies, the regal fritillary may be particularly threatened by collection due to its higher potential commercial value. Genetic isolation of populations due to habitat fragmentation will likely increase the species’ vulnerability.

Listing under the Endangered Species Act has proven an effective safety net for imperiled species: more than 99 percent of plants and animals listed under the Act persist today. The law is especially important as a bulwark against the current extinction crisis; plants and animals are disappearing at a rate much higher than the natural rate of extinction due to human activities. Scientists estimate that 227 species would have gone extinct if not for ESA listing.