A species of endangered dragonfly is getting a second chance thanks to a group of scientists working at the University of South Dakota (USD). The insects have been carefully raised, from eggs, in captivity and are now being slowly returned to the wild.
Eggs were collected, five years ago, from a Hine’s emerald dragonfly in southwestern Wisconsin. The first three were released this week at a preserve near Chicago. Another 17 dragonflies will be ready for release soon.
For a time the Hine’s emerald dragonfly was believed to be extinct and there are thought to be no more than 320 remaining in Illinois. According to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) the insects are likely extinct in Alabama, Indiana, and Ohio. They still live in Illinois, Michigan, Missouri and Wisconsin but in limited numbers.
According to the FWS, habitat loss, pollution and changes in water levels have conspired to drive the dragonflies to the brink of extinction.
According to Daniel Soluk, a professor at USD and the leader of the project, raising the animals in the lab can dramatically increase their numbers. In the wild as few as 10 in 1,000 of the insects can survive from egg to adulthood. The scientists hope to increase those numbers to 100 to 200 in 1,000.
Female dragonflies lay their eggs in water. When the eggs hatch they live in the water as nymphs for four years before emerging from the water, shedding their skin and emerging as adults. As adults, the dragonflies live only four to five weeks. During that time they breed and lay new eggs before dying.
In Illinois, only 80 to 320 adults emerge annually.
“You may have lots of numbers, but if they’re genetically almost identical, that means there’s not as much ability to resist something like a disease that comes along or that they just won’t have as much flexibility in terms of quick responses to things like change in conditions,” Soluk told the Associated Press.
While the Hine’s emerald dragonfly may not play a vital economic or ecological role, that is not the point according to Mike Grimm of the Nature Conservancy.
“We never hardly ask ‘Why is the Mona Lisa important?’ We could tear it down, burn it, and would civilization collapse? No. But it’s something that we value because it’s beautiful or it has some intrinsic value that we just want to protect. Some species, what is their value? A small butterfly doesn’t really have any economic value and probably could go extinct and we’d never even know it. But I think there’s an obligation to our future generations of people that we try to preserve the Earth in at least as good a condition as we found it,” said Grimm.
Additional information about the species, the threats that face it and efforts to save it can be found at the FWS Hine’s emerald dragonfly page.
