The Swamp Metalmark: My Butterfly Romance

Swamp Metalmark 7/18/07

Just before I moved to Chicago in 1979, I checked the maps in my Golden Guide to Butterflies to see which new species I might encounter in the Chicago area. Two jumped out at me: the Olympia Marblewing and the Swamp Metalmark. As it turns out, these are both rare species regionally, restricted to very specialized habitats. Within a couple of years of arriving in Chicago, I had jumped on the South Shore Line train to the Indiana Dunes National Lakeshore, and seen dozens of Olympia Marblewings. The metalmark remained a mystery, however.

Olympia Marblewing

In the winter of 1983, I attended my first Illinois Prairie Conference up in Crystal Lake. One of the optional breakout sessions was on prairie butterflies, presented by Wayne Shennum. How could I not attend? There, I learned two important things. First, it was possible to learn to identify skippers, a task I set about immediately. Second, Swamp Metalmarks live in fens, and there are historical records of Swamp Metalmarks from Bluff Spring Fen, the site I had been helping to manage for the previous two years. My notes from that part of the talk are peppered with exclamation points.

Bluff Spring Fen. The pink flowers in the foreground are Swamp Thistle,
caterpillar food plant for the Swap Metalmark

Ten years ago, when I made the jump from the biotech industry to the museum world, I insisted on one thing during my job interview: that I be able to use the new facility to develop a research program for the conservation and restoration of local butterflies. The then president at the museum shared my views on the matter. In 2001, we received a Leader Award from BP for the purpose of developing such a program. Since the mid 1980s, the time I figured out that the metalmark had been extirpated from the Fen, I had wanted to restore the species there. Now was my chance. And so, in 2001, I actually got to see my first living swamp metalmarks at Dundee Fen in Wisconsin. More importantly, I brought 6 females back to Illinois with me.

Me collecting metalmarks at Dundee Fen in 2001

Our initial efforts at restoration have been slow. Most years I see nothing at all. Occasionally I find a larva on swamp thistle early in the spring. Last year I saw one adult. These efforts have been hampered by the fact that the Wisconsin populations are very small, and there is little material to work with. This year, there is renewed hope.

In June, a member of my staff went to the McGuire Center for Lepedoptera Research and Conservation in Gainesville, Florida to learn some of their breeding techniques. We have already applied these to one species, with great success so far. This week, I went to the Riverendge Nature Center in Wisconsin and returned with four gravid female Metalmarks.

The fen at Riveredge Nature Center

As of this writing, we have over 70 eggs, and could easily end up with over 100. This is the largest amount of stock that we have ever had to work with. My goal is to attempt full breeding of this species in the lab, with the ultimate goal of releasing not the larvae that these eggs will hatch into, but their progeny. If they will successfully breed in the lab, I can expand the number that I have to work with into the hundreds or even the thousands. These large numbers will allow both for more robust restoration efforts, and for the possibility of restoration on more than one site.

Swamp Metalmark caterpillar

My love affair with this butterfly has endured for decades, and has had its ups and downs. I have not always been rewarded, and at times my love feels unrequited. Still, the Swamp Metalmark is the most endangered species of butterfly that I am working with, even though it is not recognized as endangered at the federal level. If there is one part of my life’s work that I want to live on long after I do, this is it.

Update: The egg count is now over 100. Some of the adult butterflies have died (not surprising at this point), others are still laying eggs. Unfortunately, one appears not to have laid eggs at all. Did I manage to snag the rare un-mated female? Oh, well, we're getting lots of eggs. Yay!