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Dec 31, 2024Keywords:
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The Brenton Blue butterfly – A conservation odyssey
David A. Edge
Abstract
The Brenton Blue butterfly became nationally famous in the 1990s when the Lepidopterists' Society of Africa (LSA) launched a campaign to prevent its imminent extinction, because of the development of a luxury housing estate at Brenton-on-Sea on the southern coast of South Africa. This campaign gained support from national and international NGOs as well as the South African public and pressure mounted on the National Government to intervene. Eventually the Brenton Blue Butterfly Reserve (BBBR) was established to protect the butterfly in 1997, with the status of a “special nature reserve”. An intensive research project was conducted from 2000–2005, which uncovered the butterfly's unusual ecological requirements, including the caterpillar's habit of feeding on the rootstock of its host plant Indigofera erecta under the protection of Camponotus baynei ants. The vegetation composition and dynamics, the biology of the host plant, the ant community and the population dynamics of the butterfly were also outcomes of this research. This facilitated the development of a reserve management programme, which for over 20 years seemed to ensure the butterfly's survival. Fire exclusion was practiced because of the risk to the host ants, which nest in dead wood on the surface. Despite these precautions, during the unprecedented Knysna fire in June 2017 the entire butterfly reserve was burnt, and even though some butterflies emerged in November 2017, these were the last ones seen at the BBBR.
