The Karner blue butterfly, Plebejus melissa samuelis, is a critically endangered butterfly on the brink of extinction. The Karner blue butterfly, KBB, survival is dependent on the wild lupine plant, Lupinus perennis, which grows in oak savannas and pine barrens and thrives in full sun to partial shade with sandy soils. The butterfly has two broods each year, where they lay eggs on the wild lupine stems and leaves or nearby grasses and sedges. The larvae only consume the leaves of wild lupine, while adults obtain nectar from a variety of plants. Since the survival of the KBB is contingent on wild lupine, management and conservation of wild lupine and other nectar sources is critical to maintaining and growing KBB populations.

Creator

• Gunnison, M.
• Fountain, E.
• Ripa, A.
• Rodriguez, A.
• Bakermans, Marja
• Gifford, N.

Subject

• OER

Publisher

• Worcester Polytechnic Institute

Language

• English

Stichwort

• Extinction
• Endangered species

Year

• 2019

Date created

• 2019

Resource type

• Project

Rights statement

• In Copyright

License

• Creative Commons BY Attribution 4.0 International

Zuletzt geändert

• 2023-09-13