Marylanders: learn how to raise your state insect and its host plant this November! Visit the Events page for complete details about this unique opportunity to contribute to this important conservation effort.

Peter Martin of the Maryland Zoo in Baltimore has developed some excellent lesson plans and activities for teaching schoolchildren about the Baltimore checkerspot. Visit the link below to download these free materials and take advantage of the opportunity to educate youth about Maryland's state butterfly:

http://www.marylandzoo.org/Downloads/Document.aspx?ID=290

To view photos of children enjoying some of these activities, click here.

Posted 1/2008

Want to help the Baltimore Checkerspot? Consider growing some of their host plant, White Turtlehead (Chelone glabra), to donate to restoration projects. To learn how to grow Turtlehead from seed, click here.

Several Baltimore checkerspots were released at Meadowlark Gardens in Vienna, Virginia, in 2006 in an attempt to establish a colony in Virginia. Click here for details and photographs.

The Baltimore Checkerspot Butterfly Restoration Project at the Baltimore Zoo officially launched on Saturday, June 19, 2004. The Baltimore Checkerspot (Euphydryas phaeton), which is the official insect of the State of Maryland, has been in severe decline in the region in recent years, probably due in part to over-populating deer browsing its host plant (Turtlehead), effectively killing the larvae in the process.

Twenty-six adult butterflies—collected mostly by Dick Smith, Maryland butterfly advisor for the Project, from some of the few remaining Baltimore Checkerspot sites around the state—will act as the seed stock for the project. A captive-rearing facility has been set up on the Zoo grounds. More than 20 volunteers, trained in two sessions by Washington Area Butterfly Club (WABC) member and project coordinator Pat Durkin, now work in pairs each day before the zoo opens to feed and mist adults, check host plants for larvae, tend to the horticultural needs of the plants, and document the progress of the project. A temporary sign has been placed in front of the captive-breeding tent to explain the project to visitors. Visitors have been showing much curiosity about the exhibit, and a permament sign has been ordered.

   A Baltimore Checkerspot lays her eggs
   on a host plant.

The Zoo's Baltimore Checkerspot captive-rearing project takes advantage of its Bog Turtle exhibit, a manmade bog on the Zoo grounds where state-listed Bog Turtles are captive-bred for reintroduction into the Maryland wild. The habitats of the Bog Turtle and the Baltimore Checkerspot overlap. An initial goal of the Zoo's butterfly project is to establish a wild colony of Baltimore Checkerspots on the Zoo grounds. Eventually, the captive-bred stock will be used to restore diminished colonies throughout the state.

The Baltimore Checkerspot Restoration Project is part of the recently launched Butterfly Conservation Initiative. The initiative is an offshoot of the American Zoo and Aquarium Association, a national organization based in Silver Spring, Maryland. Other partners in the Project include WABC, Environmental Defense, and the National Fish & Wildlife Foundation, which is providing a grant for the materials required for the Project. Dr. Deane Bowers, a national expert on this species and professor of entomology at University of Colorado, is the scientific advisor to the Project. Dr. Bowers' research on Euphydryas phaeton, done while she was a professor at University of Maryland, has been published widely in prestigious scientific journals.

The project already has had its highs and lows. On the disappointing side, a high percentage of the collected larvae and adults are succumbing to more than one parasitoid. On the hopeful side, the general Baltimore Checkerspot population in the region appears to be exhibiting an unexpected surge, making it somewhat easier, albeit very time-consuming, to replace the victims with fresh stock.

WABC also is trying to protect the Baltimore Checkerspot in its last remaining Maryland habitats. Although deer are the main problem, there are others, including all-terrain vehicles (ATVs). In early June 2004, signs (at right) were placed along a section of a northern Frederick County powerline right-of-way (ROW) to request that ATV riders not overrun the fragile wet meadow habitat along the ROW, which is one of the last strongholds of the Baltimore Checkerspot in the state. ATVs tear up the butterfly's host plant and depress the soil so it can't grow back. It is hoped the signs will educate ATV riders and the general public, who may not be aware of the damage these vehicles can cause. The Foxville owners of the land, Joe Brown and his uncle, have become Baltimore Checkerspot advocates, increasing the likelihood that this vital habitat remnant may yet be preserved.

- Article and photographs courtesy Pat Durkin.

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