Art Shapiro's Butterfly Site

From a talk, “Butterflies in Peril,” presented to the American River Natural History Association at Effie Yeaw Nature Center, Carmichael (Sacramento Co.), CA, June 20, 2007

Here is a brief summary of recent butterfly declines in our area. The page references are to “Field Guide to Butterflies of the San Francisco Bay and Sacramento Valley Regions,” by A.M. Shapiro and T. Manolis (UC Press, 2007).

Authors:  Arthur M. Shapiro and Tim Manolis
Publisher:  University of California Press

Description
The California Tortoiseshell, West Coast Lady, Red Admiral, and Golden Oak Hairstreak are just a few of the many butterfly species found in the floristically rich San Francisco Bay and Sacramento Valley regions. This guide, written for both beginning and experienced butterfly watchers by one of the nation's best-known professional lepidopterists, provides thorough, up-to-date information on all of the butterfly species found in this diverse and accessible region. Written in lively prose, it discusses the natural history and conservation status for these butterflies and at the same time provides an integrated view of butterfly biology based on studies conducted in northern California and around the world. Compact enough for use in the field, the guide also includes tips on butterfly watching, photography, gardening, and more.

• Discusses and identifies more than 130 species
• Species accounts include information on identifying butterflies through behavior, markings, and host plants
• Beautiful full-color plates illustrate top and bottom views of wings for easier identification
• Includes a species checklist and a glossary

Buy this book online
To purchase the book or see more details from the UC Press website, visit the following link. UC Press Bookpage

Most grownups think there are fewer butterflies now than when they were kids. As a professional ecologist at UC Davis, I heard that from so many people on both coasts, over several decades, that I developed my own theory to explain it. It went something like this: Butterflies constitute a proportionately bigger component of the landscape as perceived by a little kid; as a person gets bigger, butterflies seemingly get smaller, and we just notice them less. I wish that were the case, but, unfortunately for us, for our local ecosystems and for our children, hard data shows that butterflies really are disappearing. In fact, some of the most compelling data come from right here in Sacramento and its vicinity, where several species, which used to be common and easy to spot, have disappeared within the past decade. This means it’s that much harder for our kids to observe the miracle of metamorphosis first-hand, like so many of us did. If you want your kids to experience the wonder of butterflies, what can you do?

Please read the full story at the Sacramento Parent website.

Also learn how to Create Your Own Butterfly Refuge.

This story was originally published as the Tuleyome Tales column on Sunday, May 6, 2007, in The Davis Enterprise

Butterflies in our part of California have had some tough times lately.

Most people say there aren’t as many butterflies now as there were when they were kids. Because I’ve been monitoring butterflies on a biweekly basis at up to 10 sites in this part of California since 1972, I was in a position to say whether or not that was true. And by and large, it wasn’t. I used to argue that butterflies are just more conspicuous to kids than to adults, and it was all just a matter of perception. Until 1999, that is. In 1999 more than a dozen species in our area showed a sharp downturn. I began to sit up and take notice. Was something actually going on? In a word, yes.

For 35 years, butterflies of the Sacramento Valley and the Sierra Nevada have been Arthur Shapiro's obsession.

Shapiro, a UC Davis professor of evolution and ecology, has visited the same 11 observation sites from Suisun Marsh to high mountain valleys since 1972 -- most of them every two weeks.

He has recorded more than 83,000 sightings of 159 species, representing every color of the rainbow. Along the way, new butterflies have come on the scene. Others apparently have blinked out.

Shapiro recorded all he saw. And it's all now available to the public in a massive database of regional butterfly activity that is rivaled by only one other resource worldwide.

Read more at: http://www.sacbee.com/101/story/138397.html

Plucked from treeless slopes above Lake Tahoe, stored in UC Davis freezers and Fed-Exed to Texas, a batch of blue and black butterflies could help shed light on how new species are formed.

Genetic analysis shows that the still-unnamed alpine butterfly sprang from the crossing of two other species, according to an article published online Thursday by the journal Science.

That's a well-known way for new species of plants to emerge, but it's less well understood and less common in animals.
...

Read the entire Sacramento Bee article, by Carrie Peyton Dahlberg, at the link below:

Link: http://www.sacbee.com/101/story/85727.html

• .mp3 format (9.7 MB)
• .ogg Vorbis format (4.8 MB)

Last year, surprisingly large numbers of painted ladies migrated through Northern California -- this year, few have shown up

"Cold, wet conditions early in the year mean that 2006 is shaping up as the worst year for California's butterflies in almost four decades, according to Art Shapiro, professor of evolution and ecology at UC Davis."

Read article: Science Daily - Where have all the butterflies gone?

"Millions of painted lady butterflies that fluttered into California's Central Valley in the last week of March could be just the advance guard of one of the largest migrations of the species on record, said Arthur Shapiro, a professor and expert on butterflies at UC Davis."

Read article: Science Daily - Butterfly Migration Could Be Largest Known