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Smith's Blue Butterfly, cont.
The buckwheat flower also serves as the Smith's blue butterfly nursery. The female butterfly lays single eggs into buckwheat flower heads. In about a week the egg hatches and becomes a larva or caterpillar. The larvae have chewing mouthparts they use to feed on petals, and seeds in the flower head. Larvae are cryptically colored, closely matching the pinkish to creamy white color of the blossoms where they hide. The caterpillar matures through four larval stages called instars in three to four weeks before becoming a chrysalis. Chrysalis formation or pupation then takes place in the flower head or in the leaf litter. The pupa eventually falls into leaf litter and topsoil beneath the buckwheat plant. Finally the chrysalis lies hidden at the base of the buckwheat plant the remaining 47 weeks of the 52-week year at which time, if all goes well the cycle of life produces the next generation of butterfly. Recently it has been suggested that the population of Smith's blue butterfly that specializes on coast buckwheat should be reclassified into a new subspecies, called the Marina blue butterfly (Euphilotes enoptes arenacola). The subspecies name "arenacola" means "sand dweller", in reference to the sand dune habitat found exclusively in the Marina dunes, ranging from the northern portion of former Fort Ord to just north of the Salinas Rivermouth. In contrast the Smith's blue butterfly (Euphilotes enoptes smithi) is found on seacliff buckwheat on bluffs and cliffs from southern former Fort Ord south to southern coastal Monterey County, the coastal portion of the Santa Lucia Mountains and inland to Carmel Valley. The distinction given to the Marina |
The butterfly has coevolved with
the buckwheat plant to be a good fit. The flower is adapted to feed nectar
to the butterfly. In return the butterfly flies from flower to flower carrying
pollen from one flower to the next. This assists the buckwheat with the vital
service of cross-pollination.Last updated:
May 27, 2008
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