Alex Fox, columnist, SmartNews, Smithsonian Magazine, writes that the Xerces Blue Butterfly is the first U. S. insect to be wiped out by humans.
The Xerces blue butterfly has the dubious distinction of being the first insect species in the United States to have been driven off the existential cliff of extinction by humans—the last one having been collected at San Francisco’s Lobos Creek in 1941 less than 100 years after the species was first described by biologists.
It is as Phylos, the Tibetan, posits, Karma, self-made fate, binds the soul to make reparation in some life, or lives, for its sins in others―Man is his own judge and executioner. Man is his own judge and executioner has a factual meaning. We, puny species Homo sapiens, must understand clearly that the transformation of the planet by human activity is having, and will have, its adverse effects. The Boomerang Law is exact—we are our own judge, jury, and executioner.
This is the 93-year-old Xerces Blue Butterfly specimen that researchers collected tissue samples from for this study (Field Museum).
