Endangered Species Act of 1973 (amended) Fed-
eral legislation in the United States intended to provide
a means whereby the ecosystems upon which endan-
gered and threatened species depend may be conserved,
and to provide programs for the conservation of those
species in the hope of preventing extinction of native
plants and animals.
endemic species Aspecies native and confined to a
certain region; a species having comparatively restricted
distribution.
endergonic reaction Achemical reaction that con-
sumes energy rather than releases energy. Endergonic
reactions are not spontaneous because they do not
release energy.Enders, John Franklin(1897–1985) AmericanVirol-
ogist John Franklin Enders was born on February 10,
1897, at West Hartford, Connecticut, to John Ostrom
Enders, a banker in Hartford, and Harriet Goulden
Enders (née Whitmore). He was educated at the Noah
Webster School at Hartford and St. Paul’s School in112 Endangered Species Act of 1973
tion stresses ever since Europeans colonized North Ameri-
ca. Human disturbance and degradation of its habitat are
primarily responsible for this butterfly’s endangered status
throughout its range. A more subtle effect has been disrup-
tion of the natural fire cycles that keep its habitats open and
sunny. Without fire, the barrens grow up into forests, shad-
ing out open areas the butterflies need for mating, feeding,
and egg laying, and reducing the lupine plants that are nec-
essary for its caterpillars to survive. Global warming may
also be taking its toll: relatively mild winters in the North-
east since the early 1970s have reduced or eliminated the
annual snowpack that shelters the overwintering eggs from
December to March, forcing them to hatch too early, dessi-
cate on sunbaked spring sand, or lie exposed to predators
and parasitoids during this defenseless life stage.
Intensive scientific studies of the Karner blue have
been conducted since 1973, when people first realized that
it was declining in New York. Private conservation efforts
began soon after, starting with the Pine Bush Historic
Preservation Project (headed by Don Rittner), the Karner
Blue Project (conducted by Robert Dirig and John F. Cryan),
and the Xerces Society (led by Robert Michael Pyle and Jo
Brewer). Spider Barbour of the rock group Chrysalis com-
posed the song “Shepherd’s Purse” in the 1970s to highlight
the butterfly’s plight. After the Karner blue was classified as
threatened or endangered in various states, governmental
funding became available, and many ecological studies
were conducted by professional scientists. Today the Karn-
er blue is extremely well known biologically (for example,
we know the elemental composition of its eggshell), and the
butterfly has also been the subject of several studies ofpreservation strategies. Habitat conservation efforts have
continued at Karner (Albany Pine Bush), where approxi-
mately 2,750 acres of the type locality have been preserved
to date. Managing this large preserve is challenging, as its
location between urban centers discourages the fires that
are needed to maintain the open vegetation Karner blues
require. Additional preserves have been set aside for the
butterfly and its habitat in many places throughout its range.
The Xerces Society was founded in 1971 to focus on
insect conservation, and initially emphasized imperiled
North American butterflies. This group’s scope has broad-
ened over the past three decades to include all terrestrial
and marine invertebrates, and has had an important, if sub-
tle, impact on North American conservation efforts. It is
named for the Xerces blue (Glaucopsyche xerces), a Califor-
nia butterfly similar to the Karner blue that became extinct in
the 1940s. This vanished insect lived on coastal sand dunes,
where its caterpillars fed on a small legume in San Francis-
co, before its habitat was ruined. Other butterflies that the
Xerces Society has championed include the Atala hairstreak
(Eumaeus atala) and Schaus’ swallowtail (Papilio aristode-
mus ponceanus) in southern Florida; and Smith’s blue
(Euphilotes enoptes smithi), El Segundo blue (Euphilotes
battoides allyni), mission blue (Icaricia icarioides missionen-
sis), and the San Bruno elfin (Callophrys mossii bayensis) in
California. This organization has also expended much effort
in trying to help protect the migratory monarch’s(Danaus
plexippus)spectacular overwintering sites in Mexico.
Among these, the Karner blue is an enduring example
of ongoing human commitment to preserve an endangered
insect in an increasingly crowded world.—Robert Dirigis assistant curator/curator of
lichens at Bailey Hortorium Herbarium,
Cornell University, in Ithaca, New York.The Karner Blue—
New York’s Endangered Butterfly
(continued)