He may be renowned for writingLolita , Pale Fire , Invitation to a Beheadingand many other seminal employment of 20th century literature , but Vladimir Nabokov was also a well - screw lepidopterologist in his day . When Nabokov observe and named theKarner bluebutterfly in the 1940s , the species ( Lycaeides melissasamuelis)was already on the decline . Experts estimate that in the past 100 year , the Karner downhearted universe has dropped by 99 percentage . Its dwindle numbers earned the postage stamp stamp – sized butterfly one of the first place on the then - Modern U.S.Endangered Species Listin 1973 .
Now the near extinct Karner blue is making a comeback , thanks to two decades of concerted effort by environmentalist .
Nabokov accurately noted that the Karner ’s decline was occur in tandem with the loss of the pine barrens , its favored home ground . That ’s why for the past 20 years , environmentalist have try torejuvenate the speciesby doctor the pine barrens through selective combustion of the landscape painting , which destroys encroaching plants and makes elbow room for fire - pendant species like pitch pine and scrub oak to boom .
These travail have n’t been uniformly successful across the butterfly ’s former range , which stretches from Minnesota to New England . For instance , the Karner blue is probably gone for good from Indiana , where 20 class ago biologist reported seeing 5,000 to 10,000 of the species but so far this year have n’t regain a exclusive one . ( They find two in 2014 . )
But in key New York , where the butterfly was first discovered by Nabokov in the pine bush just outside Albany , the number are promising — the upshot of not only habitat restoration but a captive breeding program collaboration between New York and New Hampshire . Each year since 2001 , New York has sent grownup Karner blues to New Hampshire , and New Hampshire has returned some of the pupating larvae to Albany . These efforts have go out the Karner universe bound back from a mere 200 butterflies in 1991 to more than 14,000 today , according to Neil Gifford , conservation director for the 3,200 - acreAlbany Pine Bush Preserve .
" This project has been unbelievably rewarding , " Gifford toldWNYC . " get to see an brute that was on the threshold of quenching locally , now have a rich and healthy population , is just incredible . "
[ h / tWNYC ]
