FORT McCOY, Wis. -- A research team from the University of Notre Dame in South

Bend, Ind., and the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) visited Fort McCoy to study

the Karner blue butterfly (KBB) and its habitat.

University of Notre Dame doctoral graduate student Lainey Pasternak, along

with a summer undergraduate research assistant from Notre Dame's Saint Mary's

College and two employees from the USGS Lake Michigan Ecological Field Station

at the Indiana Dunes National Lakeshore, visited Fort McCoy for three days in

June.

"(The visit) was for my (doctoral) thesis research in the Hellmann Lab (at

Notre Dame)," Pasternak said. "I will be exploring research questions

investigating the effect of temperature on Karner blue and wild lupine

phenology. To undertake this project idea, I needed to establish a new

experimental laboratory colony of Karner blues at Notre Dame. In order to

start a new colony, I needed to obtain Karner blue eggs from adults in the

field."

The Karner blue butterfly first was observed at Fort McCoy more than 25 years

ago and is listed as an endangered species, said Endangered Species Biologist

Tim Wilder of the Directorate of Public Works Natural Resources Branch (NRB).

NRB efforts have helped increase the butterfly's population throughout the

installation in recent years. Now that success is helping Pasternak build a

Karner colony at Notre Dame.

"We collected female butterflies at various sites at Fort McCoy, put them in

oviposition (egg-laying) containers, and collected their eggs at the end of

the day," Pasternak said. "In each cage, a female was provided a flowering

plant, lupine leaves, sticks for climbing and sunning, and Q-tips with honey

mixture and water as a food source.

"The eggs that I collected were raised as larvae and pupae," Pasternak said.

"Once they emerged as adults, they were mated in adulthood to produce eggs

that will overwinter and be kept in temperature-controlled environmental

chambers. As a chapter of my thesis, I will assess the effect that changing

temperature has on the phenology of and synchrony between the KBB and wild

lupine. This experiment will aim to explain the potential phenological

mismatch between these species in the field and show their sensitivity to

temperature change."

Pasternak said the collected eggs are fostering a second generation in the

lab, which will in turn produce third-generation overwintering eggs for an

experiment in summer 2016. She said the collected specimens are doing well in

the lab environment.

"After collecting eggs in Wisconsin, we spent the entire summer maintaining

the colony population throughout all the progressing life stages," Pasternak

said. "We did not run any experiments this summer, as our only purpose was to

produce a healthy, genetically diverse population for a climate-change

experiment next summer."

Wilder said the research hopefully will provide insight in how to better

manage the species. "It was long thought that the best KBB habitat (wild

lupine and nectar plants) was located in more open grassland and savanna

habitats," he said. "It is beginning to look like it will be very important to

also have habitat in areas that provide shade to buffer against high

temperatures.

"The research also will likely provide some insight into how KBB populations

will react to warmer temperatures or extremes in temperatures," Wilder said.

"For example, this portion of Wisconsin had extremely warm temperatures during

the spring of 2010 and 2012. KBB eggs were hatching much earlier than normal.

If this begins to happen more often, how might this impact KBB populations as

a whole?"

Pasternak said the research will assist Karner land-management efforts on

adapting to climate change in the region.

"Our lab, in partnership with the USGS Lake Michigan Ecological Research

Station, has been investigating potential effects of climate change on the

Karner blue butterfly for the past four years," Pasternak said.

"The KBB is susceptible to changes in habitat quality and climate," she said.

"Not only will this experiment forecast how the KBB and wild lupine respond to

climate change, but it also will provide basic biological insight into

potential phenological gaps between other herbivores and their host plants.

This could help inform what kind of changes have occurred or are occurring in

places with very low Karner populations, like at the Indiana Dunes National

Lakeshore."

Pasternak said the NRB staff was "extremely helpful" in supporting the

research during the visit.

"Tim Wilder was very supportive of my Karner collection and research proposal

for next summer, and Dave Beckmann provided great feedback on adapting to

initial difficulties of prompting the females to lay eggs in the field,"

Pasternak said. "Also, Nathan Tucker spent multiple days with my field team

showing us around to numerous Karner sites, helping us construct oviposition

enclosures and catching butterflies. Our collection success at Fort McCoy was

greatly attributed to the support of the (NRB) staff."

Once the research is complete, Pasternak said she plans to share the results

with land managers and scientists at the Karner Blue Butterfly National

Recovery Team, in addition to the land managers in Wisconsin who made the

project possible.

For more information about the Karner blue butterfly and endangered species at

Fort McCoy, call 608-388-5679.