Fender's Blue may be seen less often than reported

[Don Boucher]

http://democratherald.com/oregon-outdoors/watchable-wildlife/fender-s-blue-on-the-rise/article_c3185410-d538-11e2-8837-0019bb2963f4.html

I'm delighted to say that the Fender's Blue butterfly was featured in Oregon Outdoors today (see link above). Lisa contributed a photo of a Silvery Blue butterfly for the article as a comparison. People need to know that there are other kinds of blue butterflies that are more common. Every now and then, I hear a report from someone that they saw a bunch of "Fender's Blues." I'm particularly suspicious when their encounter is in an area devoid of Kincaid's Lupine.

Because of their conservation status, the Fender's Blue and Kincaid's lupine are well known among local conservation activists. Articles, newsletters and web sites feature them often. That's good!

But this can lead to misconceptions if people are unfamiliar with other local blue butterfly species and lupine species. Other blue butterflies like Silvery Blues, Spring Azures, Western and Eastern Blues are often seen. AND there are other native lupines, like Large-leaf and Lupinus rivularis that any given blue butterfly may visit for nectar. There are also some smaller, non-native lupines too. Basically, unless you're at a conservation site with Kincaid's Lupine growing, and you know how to identify it and the Fender's Blue (not necessarily easy to do), you're probably not seeing Fendler's Blues landing on Kincaid's Lupines.

Butterflies can visit most any flower for nectar. Even Fender's are seen on other flower species. Fender's Blue females visit Kincaid's mostly to lay eggs on it.

Don Boucher

Corvallis

[Olaf Sweetman]

Hi Don,

This weekend, I was on a bike tour that included the top of Marys Peak (aka Tcha Teemanwi, "place of the spirits").  In the upper meadows, my companion and I noticed an abundance of small blue butterflies and lupine.  She hoped they were the Fender's Blue, but I thought the circumstantial evidence left room for much reasonable doubt.  So thanks for the timely post!

Interestingly, the Fender's Blue can also use common English plantain as an egg host (according to Tom Kaye).

Cheers,
Olaf

[Lisa Millbank]

Hi Olaf and all,

I believe that another interesting butterfly of concern around here, Taylor's Checkerspot, is the species using English Plantain as a host plant.  It is thought that Taylor's Checkerspots used paintbrushes and/or possibly Blue-eyed Mary (Collinsia sp.) as native hosts.  But now, almost all of its caterpillars eat English Plantain. 

While they are pretty much entirely dependent on Kincaid's Lupine around here, Fender's Blues will use a couple of other species of lupine if they are available.  I found a reference saying that they can eat Sickle-keeled Lupine (Lupinus albicaulis) or Spurred Lupine (L. arbustus).  These other lupines are rare in the valley.

Lisa Millbank
www.neighborhood-naturalist.com

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[Joel Geier]

Hi all,

Sickle-keeled Lupine, the alternate host plant for Fender's Blue butterflies that Lisa mentions, is moderately easy to propagate, so worth considering as a yard plant if you'd like to help provide "bridges" for Fender's blues to get between the few sites that still have Kincaid's lupine. I've seen a USDA flyer that talks about seed supplies for landowners.

You need to scarify the seed to get good germination (a few quick strokes with medium-grit sandpaper seems to to the trick -- you just need to get some scratches into the seed coating), and then provide "cold-moist stratification" (a fancy term for mixing the seeds in with moist perlite or vermiculite and then putting them in a ziploc bag in the fridge). I don't have my notes handy but the time for stratification is fairly short, just a few weeks. However, like most lupines they don't like being transplanted, so you might be best off just poking the sprouting seeds into the ground rather than growing them in pots. You can grow them in pots but there seems to be a lot of attrition when you transplant.

I have a couple of mature plants producing seed here at our place, and a couple of younger plants which successfully transplanted bloomed at Luckiamute State Natural Area this year. There should be more in future years from direct seeding.

Rana Foster pointed out to me that Sickle-keeled Lupine is growing together with Kincaid's Lupine on OSU's Soap Creek Ranch. The Kincaid's Lupine is far more abundant. I don't know if any Fender's Blues are using that site. It would be a long hop from the isolated areas where they have recognized populations.

One issue worth knowing is that lupines have a bad reputation with rangeland managers, because at least a few species are toxic to livestock:
http://www.ars.usda.gov/Services/docs.htm?docid=9950
Kincaid's lupine is a subspecies of Lupinus sulphureus which is one of the species that has been implicated in "crooked calf disease."

In conversation with OSU's site manager at Soap Creek Ranch recently, he commented that the idea of protecting lupines was entirely new to him when he came to work there. The normal practice in rangeland management is to eradicate lupine.  But he's aware that this is a protected species and is trying to adjust to that idea. What they're doing there now is to graze cattle on the pastures that have lupine only early in the spring, before the lupines really start to grow. Then they move the cattle to other pastures.

This seems to be working out OK for the lupines, so far as I can see (maybe some better botanists than me will have different opinions). It certainly seems to be working out well for Oregon Vesper Sparrows (another species of concern), which are nesting on those pastures in higher densities than we're seeing anywhere else in the Willamette Valley.

Joel
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Joel Geier
Camp Adair area north of Corvallis