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The North American Butterfly Association (NABA) recently received a small grant from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to survey the butterfly fauna of extreme south Florida (20 miles in from the coast in all of Dade County) and all of the Keys (Monroe County). The butterfly fauna of these areas may constitute the most endangered suite of species in the continental United States!

Most of these special butterflies are found in association with either Tropical Hardwood Hammocks or Pine Rockland. All have suffered from the catastrophic loss of habitat caused by converting most of South Florida’s natural habitat into urban and suburban developments. Unfortunately this process continues.

In an effort to learn the status of the butterfly fauna in these areas, NABA would like to survey every square mile, if possible! The funding received for the surveys will pay for website development and data organization and entry. Therefore, we will rely solely on volunteers to conduct these surveys.

HERE’S HOW YOU CAN HELP!

• Plan a butterfly excursion to any location in extreme south Florida and the Keys (locations within 20 miles of the coast).

• Document all butterflies that you see. Include caterpillar food plants seen at the location, if you know them. If possible, take pictures of the butterflies. Even snapshots may prove helpful in identification.

• Fill out a data form.

• Provide NABA with the location that you surveyed. You can do this several ways.

1. If you have a GPS receiver, latitude and longitude coordinates would be the preferred method.
2. Since most of us don’t have a GPS unit, you can use your Delorme Gazeteer: either copy the page and mark the location surveyed OR look for the lat/long on the margins of the page.
3. If you don’t have a Delorme map, write a detailed description about where you were. In other words, Castello Hammock would be a good description of a place because it is a small county park, but Everglades National Park would not be a good description.

• Record the butterflies seen at the location. You will notice that the target species are bolded. Also, you do not have to be specific with exact numbers seen. You can use the letters at the bottom of the data form (page 2) to represent a range of what was seen. For example, if you see so many that you can’t count them, you will record the letter S on the line to denote Superabundant. (Pages 1 and 2 are in the same spreadsheet document in different worksheets-click tabs at the bottom of the spreadsheet to maneuver between the two pages.)

Once you have filled out all the required sections on the form, you can send it to:

Lana Edwards
3206 Palm Drive
Delray Beach, FL 33857

OR you can fill out the forms electronically (preferred). Then email the forms to .

Over the next few weeks, please continue to check out the NABA website for updates. Soon we plan to have downloadable survey maps, identification sheets for target butterflies and their caterpillar plants, as well as an online form to submit your data electronically.

If you have any questions about the surveys, please feel free to contact us.

Alana Edwards, Survey Co-Coordinator, 561/706-6732
Lana Edwards, Survey Co-Coordinator, 561/736-2643
Jeffrey Glassberg, Principal Investigator and President of NABA

We hope that you will plan to conduct surveys in several locations. Take the initiative and coordinate several groups to cover several areas! Your participation in this project is essential and we appreciate your interest in these invaluable surveys.