Frequently Asked Questions

Karner blues are small, with a wingspan of about one inch. The wing top sides of male butterflies are deep sky blue, while those of the female are darker blue and brown with orange spots on the edges of both hind wings. Both sexes can be identified by the bands of orange spots on the underside edge of their wings.

Karner blue caterpillars (larvae) are pale green and 2 to 14 millimeters long, depending on their age. They are usually found feeding on wild lupine leaves and are often guarded by ants that collect a sugary solution secreted by the caterpillars' bodies. It is very difficult to distinguish between Karner blue caterpillars and similar butterfly larvae.

Females release 1-3 eggs at a time and can release up to about 10 eggs per day.

Karner blues typically lay their eggs on or near wild lupine plants, on the lower parts of the stems and petioles.

Caterpillars feed on wild lupine leaves for three to four weeks before pupating.

The pupa of a Karner blue is a small, brown, cocoon-like body attached to a firm surface, usually a wild lupine stem or a clump of leaf litter. Karner blues pupate for 5-11 days before they emerge as adults.

Most Karner blues stay within about 200 meters of their home lupine patch, though some may disperse as far as 1.4 miles in a very open landscape.

The second annual generation of Karner blues lays eggs on lupine or nearby grasses at the end of summer. The eggs remain attached to the plants through the fall and winter, when the plants die back and are covered by winter snows. Snow cover may insulate the eggs and cushion them from impact. These eggs hatch in mid-April to produce the first Karner blues of the year.

Adult Karner blues usually live about 5-7 days, but may live longer. They feed on the nectar of wildflowers and get minerals from drying water puddles or dung.

The Karner blue butterfly is one of six subspecies of Lycaeides melissa, commonly known as the Melissa blue. It is in the Lycaenidae (Gossamer-Winged Butterfly) family.

The Karner blue (Lycaeides melissa samuelis) currently occurs in at least seven states — Wisconsin, Michigan, Minnesota, Indiana, New Hampshire, New York and Ohio. The Karner blue lives in open areas with sandy soils that support the wild lupine plant.

When a non-Federal land manager plans an activity that may "take" (harass, harm or kill) a federally threatened or endangered species, that land manager must apply to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service for an incidental take permit. The incidental take permit application must be accompanied by a habitat conservation plan (HCP) that outlines a conservation program for avoiding, minimizing, mitigating and monitoring the take. An incidental take permit allows take at levels that do not threaten the longterm survival and recovery of the species. Intentional take (e.g., collection, hunting, intentional habitat destruction) is never allowed.

"Take" is defined in the Endangered Species Act as harassing, harming, pursuing, hunting, shooting, wounding, killing, trapping, capturing, or collecting a threatened or endangered species. Harm includes habitat destruction or degradation that impairs essential behavioral patterns such as breeding, feeding, or sheltering.

Because Karner blues are distributed across such a large area of Wisconsin, and because there are so many landowners in the Karner blue range, the HCP and associated incidental take permit were designed to cover the entire state. A statewide HCP requires only one permit application (in lieu of many separate applications) and provides for a landscape conservation approach. HCP conservation activities focus on the central and northwest parts of Wisconsin, where the wild lupine plant supports the Karner blue.

Not necessarily. Land managers in the Karner blue range whose activities include: 1) permanent habitat destruction (e.g., roadway or subdivision construction), 2) right-ofway management, or 3) commercial forestry on more than 1,000 acres need to apply for an incidental take permit. In general, the easiest and least expensive way for these land managers to obtain incidental take permit coverage is to become a partner in the HCP. Thirty-six major land managers currently act as HCP partners, including utility companies, road managers and commercial foresters. Small private landowners, farmers, and foresters with less than 1000 acres generally do not need to apply for an incidental take permit. They are automatically covered by the statewide permit and may participate in Karner blue conservation voluntarily. Landowners in this voluntary participation group generally face no legal penalties if they choose not to participate. The 3-Year Participation Strategy Review Report highlights the achievements of this voluntary participation group. Contact the HCP Coordinator at the Wisconsin DNR (608-261-6451) for detailed participation opportunities.

If you own land in the Karner blue range, you can do a few things to create and maintain butterfly habitat on your property. These activities may include brush clearing, planting of lupine and nectar species, and invasive species control. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) has a program that provides technical and monetary assistance to private landowners who would like to help conserve the butterfly on their property. For more information on this landowner assistance program, call the FWS 608-221-1206, ext. 21, and read the FWS fact sheet on Restoring Habitat for the Karner Blue Butterfly on Private Lands in Wisconsin. More information is available on the Partners for Fish and Wildlife Program website. The DNR fact sheet on Growing Wild Lupine offers some technical advice. If you live in the Karner blue range, chances are good that HCP partners and participants manage land in your county. You may be able to assist an HCP partner with their conservation efforts. Check the online HCP partner list for participating land managers in your area. You can also help by talking to other landowners and educators about Karner blue conservation.

The HCP allows land managers to continue land management (e.g., forestry, roadway and corridor maintenance) in and around Karner blue habitat, provided they modify their activities to minimize negative impacts on Karner blues and their habitat. Karner blue conservation is not incompatible with land uses in central and northwestern Wisconsin. In fact, long-term maintenance of Karner blue habitat requires the types of periodic clearing (e.g., mowing and logging) that are common in Wisconsin's Karner blue range. HCP partners employ several techniques to protect Karner blues and their habitat. These include: timing of mowing and herbicide applications to protect summer-flowering lupine and nectar plants, creation of dispersal corridors between Karner blue-occupied sites, and maintenance of "shifting mosaics" on forest land. Shifting mosaics are arrangements of forest parcels, logged on a rotating basis to maintain Karner blue habitat. Permanent take (e.g., road or subdivision construction on Karner blue-occupied land) requires a mitigation plan to avoid or minimize take and recreate Karner blue habitat elsewhere.

Frequently, species become endangered because their habitats are diminished or degraded. The Karner blue butterfly is no exception. The species needs open oak savannas and pine barrens to live, and these ecosystems have become increasingly rare in its natural range. Central and northwestern Wisconsin contains much of the Karner blue's last remaining habitat. By protecting the Karner blue, we are protecting imperiled grassland ecosystems and many other rare species that depend on them, including the Kirtland's warbler, slender glass lizard, eastern massasauga rattlesnake, wood turtle, powesheik skipper, regal fritillary, yellow gentian, and Hill's thistle. Ecosystem conservation helps maintain biological diversity and stable, resilient landscapes.

The survey methodologies for HCP partners are contained in the HCP Monitoring Handbook. This handbook is available on this website.

Karner blue surveys are required prior to management activities in the High Potential Range. See the High Potential Range maps for the specific range.

Activities conducted on occupied Karner blue habitat are required to follow the conservation measures contained in the HCP Users Guide.

HCP Partners must submit annual reports with information about monitoring, management activities, land purchase or sales and other information about activities.

Annual reports contain pertinent information about the activities a partner conducted within the Karner blue high potential range. This information is summarized in a form provided by the DNR and submitted each year by March 1st for the previous year. The HCP Partners have developed a webcast to assist in completing an annual report.

The Fish and Wildlife Service requires that land transfers occurring within the high potential range be reported. This is so the new landowner can be contacted regarding participation in the HCP and the various conservation activities that can benefit Karner blues and their habitat. Land transfers must be reported on the annual report unless the land is located in a biological recovery zone. Land transfers in the biological recovery zones must be reported within 45 days of the closing transactions.

The HCP partners typically have two meetings a year as a group. There is one meeting in the winter and one in the summer. These meetings are announced publicly and the dates are available on the HCP Calendar.

Karner blues have two flights a year, one from mid-May to mid-June and the other from July to early August. Each year varies slightly depending on weather conditions and the previous winter. The DNR maintains emergence models for the Karner blues’ flight periods on this website.

The history of the HCP is one of successful endangered species conservation unprecedented in the United States. To learn more about this programs history see the History of the HCP web page.

HCP Partner requirements are outlined in Species and Habitat Conservation Agreements that each partner enters into with the DNR.

The incidental take permit contains the regulatory requirements the partnership needs to comply with. The incidental take permit and the Habitat Conservation Plan are available on the HCP web page.

The Implementation Oversight Committee, or IOC, is the partners’ oversight and decision-making body. The IOC comprises representatives from each of the various entity groups in the partnership. Current IOC representatives and past meeting minutes and agendas are available on this web site.

HCP Partners need to maintain records of all Karner monitoring and records of certain management activities conducted in the high potential range. These records are maintained to all HCP requirements and are verified through periodical audits.

Audits are conducted primarily as training opportunities for partner staff and to verify that on-the-ground activities and monitoring are implemented correctly. The HCP Partners have developed a webcast to assist partners in preparing for an audit.

The short answer is none. Small private landowners are considered voluntary partners under the HCP. This designation provides broad coverage under the statewide permit for activities that do not intentionally harm Karner blues. The goal of this approach is to promote Karner blue conservation by this group.

The Karner blue butterfly requires wild lupine as a caterpillar to survive. In Wisconsin, wild lupine grow in open, dry sandy areas in the central and northwestern portions of the state. To see a map of the potential areas of Karner blue habitat see the HPR map on this web site.

The Karner blue is a small blue butterfly about the size of a postage stamp. While rare nationwide, they are common in parts of Wisconsin. Specific markings on the wings of the Karner blue allow you to distinguish them from other blue butterflies. To lean more about these features see the Karner blue identification page.

This first indication that you may have Karner blues is if you have lupine, but this doesn’t mean there are Karner blues present. Many types of butterflies feed on lupine. To see identification tips see the Karner blue identification page.

The Karner blue caterpillar will only eat the leaves of the wild lupine. Adult Karner blues will eat the nectar from a variety of flowering plants. To see pictures of lupine and various common nectar plants see the Karner blue identification page.

Karner blues have two flights a year, one from mid-May to mid-June and the other from July to early August. Each year varies slightly depending on weather conditions and the previous winter. The DNR maintains emergence models for the Karner blue flight periods on this website.

Small private landowners do not have any requirements for managing Karner blues. There are some things landowners can do to help conserve and promote this butterfly and its habitat. To learn more about what you can do visit the various links from this web site.

The DNR has a statewide recovery program for this species. There are several state parks, forests, fisheries and wildlife areas that will be managing for the Karner blue and its habitat for the long term. To learn more about recovery efforts for this species contact the Bureau of Endangered Resources.