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.

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.