Five Endangered Butterflies: Shaus Swallowtail

Schaus Swallowtail

This is the last of five blog posts about my 

Endangered Butterfly linoleum print series.

 

The Shaus swallowtail is the only butterfly in the family which contains the swallowtails (Papilionidae) that is endangered in the US.  Once populating the southern tip of Florida and the Florida Keys, the Schaus swallowtail now survives in small tropical hardwood hammocks in Miami-Dade and Monroe Counties, northern Key Largo, and several small islands within Biscayne National Park (Photo by ZanyShani on Flickr.)



Another important refuge for the Shaus is at

Biscayne National Park 

"Deering Estate at Cutler," a 400-acre green space on the coast, and the butterfly is also being reintroduced to a golf course in Miami-Dade. Females lay their eggs on wild lime and sea torchwood.  The topography of Florida is very flat, so most of the background map in the image consists of man made canals and streets with isolated green spaces.  This speaks volumes to the impact of humans on the native habitat of the butterfly.  This image is three color blocks:  Blue, yellow and black.  The red areas are hand painted watercolor.



Special thanks to Dr. Tom Emmel for the use of his photograph to create this print, and for his and his colleagues' dedication to conserving this beautiful species.

Five Endangered Butterflies: Mitchell's Satyr

Mitchell's Satyr

The Mitchell's Satyr belongs to the family Satyridae. The Satyrs are some of the most endearing butterflies. Their name is suits them: The mythological Satyr is an intoxicated forest-dweller. The goat-like man is a randy creature, and I have seen local Satyr butterflies mating in mid air, with the female struggling to fly against the male's weight.Even when flying solo, their flight pattern is dopey, slow, heavy and labored, and they have very round wings. Unlike many butterflies, the Satyrs don't often bask in the sun with their wings spread out flat, so observers will often see them in profile. with the underwings showing.

Photo: Tondo of an Attic red-figure plate, 520–500 BC. From Vulci

The Mitchell’s satyr lives in Michigan and Indiana in prairie fens, which are a combination of a prairie and a bog. The background map in this print is of the Paw Paw River watershed in Michigan. The USGS topographic maps have symbols representing wetlands that I incorporated in the background as well. The caterpillars eat foxtail sedge and tussock sedge, but their habits aren't fully understood. The cause of their endangered status isn’t clear. The print is made from two color blocks.

Photo credit: Andrew Hoffman's "Marshy Fen" (in Indiana) on Flickr.

Five Endangered Butterflies: Uncompahgre Fritillary

Uncompahgre Fritillary
This is the second of five posts about my endangered butterfly linoleum prints

The Uncompahgre Fritillary is in the family Nymphalidae – The name of this butterfly comes from one of the nomadic groups of the Ute Indians that once traveled in what is now eastern Utah, western Colorado and parts of New Mexico and Wyoming. Uncompahgre fritillary lives on two 14,000ft peaks in the San Juan Mountains, Colorado: Uncomphagre and Red Cloud peaks. Its caterpillars eat snow willow, which is a miniature, alpine version of our tall willow trees. This print is made from two color blocks.





Alpine ecosystems are fragile – the species are isolated much like island species, and they are adapted to the temperature, moisture and altitude. Increases in average temperature are major concern for alpine and montane species; as temperatures warm, the subalpine zone marches up the mountain, decreasing the surface area available until it is gone.

Photo credit: Trail up Uncompahgre Peak by Jessi Varner on Flickr


Special thanks to the amazing photographer Bill Bouton for the use of his butterfly photo, and to Dr. Paul Opler for his gracious advice.

Five Endangered Butterflies: Mission Blue

The Five Endangered Butterfly prints tell the stories of the butterflies, and represent similar stories of imperiled butterflies across the globe. Each image contains three aspects of the butterfly’s life history: The butterfly in adult form, the geography of the region in which it currently lives, and the particular host plant(s) that the females lay their eggs on for the caterpillars to consume. Most butterfly species depend on a very narrow diet for the caterpillars, and the landscape provides the habitat for the ecosystem. In the case of endangered butterflies, the ecology and life history are so interdependent that human impacts are often the cause of their peril.

There are 17 federally listed endangered butterflies from five taxonomic families in the US. The “family” is the level of classification above the genus and species of an organism. These five endangered butterfly prints are representatives of the five families of butterflies. They are all linoleum relief prints on Rives Lightweight Paper, 115gsm.


The Endangered Butterfly print project began with the Mission Blue. Daniel Dancer, a conceptual artist asked me to create a t-shirt design for an “Art for the Sky” collaboration at Presidio Middle School in San Francisco, CA. (Aerial photo credit: Michael Maloney, SF Chronicle.) After completing the commission for Daniel, I felt like the Mission Blue's story was only part of the message I wanted to send out. So, I created a series of prints that represent butterflies of the five families.

THE MISSION BLUE STORY:

Mission Blue belongs to the family Lycaenidae— Eight of the seventeen federally listed butterflies belong to Lycaenidae, or the “gossamer wings.” The subfamily of “blues” are generally small, delicate butterflies that use legumes as host plants. The largest population of mission blues live in the San Bruno Mountains near San Francisco. Other small populations exist in other locations in Marin, San Mateo and San Francisco counties. The topographic lines in the background of the print represent the coastal San Bruno Mountains. The females lay their eggs on silverleaf lupine, which is on either side of the butterfly. This image was made from three color blocks.

This is the first of five blogs describing the Five Endangered Butterflies series. These prints are available for sale as a set of five, only, and are not sold separately.