This butterfly may have been the first insect extinct by American urbanization

Scientists say they have confirmed decades-old suspicion about loss of the Xerces blue butterfly in the United States in the 1940s. Based on genetic analysis of a 93-year-old specimen and others, they say the blue Xerces was really a separate species of butterfly, rather than a subgroup of another extant species, as some scientists have speculated. If this is true, it would reaffirm the end of the butterfly as the first known insect extinction in the United States linked to urbanization.

Xerces blue, or Glaucopsyche xerces, was originally from the San Francisco Peninsula in California. In fact, the name only referred to male butterflies, since the the front of their iridescent wings had a striking blue to purple coloration and a black border. Females had clearer Brown wings. The last confirmed sighting of the Blue Xerces was in the early 1940s. And while related species of the butterfly still exist today, it is generally believed that its evolutionary journey ended soon after, in large part. partly thanks to its increasing habitat loss caused by our development of new buildings and structures in the area.

Since then, the sad story of blue Xerces has motivated environmentalists. In 1971, the company Xerces, a nofor-profit organization devoted to the conservation of insects and other invertebrates, was created, having adopted the butterfly as a mascot. More recently, some people have request if Xerces blue would be an ideal candidate for de-extinction, the idea of ​​reviving a species. This could happen either by genetic engineering techniques (such as Jurassic Park) or through the introduction of a closely related species into its once native habitat—essentially, trying to recreate the conditions that gave rise to the loss butterfly in the first place.

But some researchers have also wondered, given its close resemblance to other butterflies, whether perhaps Xerces Blue should be considered more accurately as a subspecies of another group. still widely distributed today in the western half of North America: the silvery blue butterfly, or Glaucopsyche lygdamus. To help settle this debate, scientists at various research institutions have delved deep into the DNA of Blue Xerces and other butterflies. Although much of the DNA collected from their key specimen, taken from the Field Museum in Chicago, Illinois, had degraded, the team’s use of the next-the sequencing of generations leaves them recover enough information to make valid comparisons on his lineage, they say.

“By sequencing the DNA of the nearly 100-year-old specimen and comparing it to other samples of Xerces Blue and many other closely related species, we were able to show that all Xerces samples are the closest relatives to each other, and they are distinct from all other samples, including common widespread species’, Corrie Moreau, evolutionary biologist as well as director and curator of the Cornell University Insect Collection, Gizmodo said in an email. The team’s results were published Tuesday in Biology Letters.

Although the team was not able to fully recover the DNA from the butterfly, they say their work could be the first step in figuring out how to genetically resurrect Xerces Blue. But more important than this extinct butterfly are the insects still alive today.

“We know that human impact can have negative effects on biodiversity, but we can also focus our efforts to protect living species on the planet today,” said Moreau. “All one of us can help protect biodiversity by supporting conservation societies and helping to protect native habitats. When we lose a species, there are ripple effects in nature, which ultimately impact humans, too much.”

That said, adds Moreau, this research also shows the interest in preserving the biological past as well as possible, since we never know how our descendants will benefit.

“This is a great example of how some scientific questions can only be solved with the help of museum specimens, which is why we need to safeguard these collections and continue to develop them,” she said. declared. “We can’t imagine all the ways they will be used in the future, just as the person who collected this Xerces blue couldn’t have imagined that we could use DNA to answer a question that dates back long before. the extinction of blue Xerces. “