Rare Butterflies Flying High at Los Angeles Airport
The endangered El Segundo blue feels right at home amid the wilderness of concrete that is the nation's third busiest airport.
LOS ANGELES, CaliforniaThe whine of jet engines fills the air. Hangars and runways stretch to the horizon.
But somewhere here amid the wilderness of concrete that is Los Angeles International Airport lives a tiny butterfly that's found almost nowhere else on Earth.
On a recent winter’s day, the only winged creatures visible in the airport known locally as LAX are giant airplanes.
Buried beneath buckwheat shrubs near the end of the runways, though, are countless chrysalises of the endangered El Segundo blue butterfly, which will slumber through the jets’ roar until summer.
“As long as it has its buckwheat, it can eat, grow, survive, and it’s happy,” says LAX environmental supervisor Erica Blyther as she surveys the airport’s butterfly habitat.
That a rare butterfly lives at the nation’s third busiest airport is surprising. Confounding experts even more, the blue is making a comeback. (See "It's a Good Year for Monarchs, But More Butterflies Are On the Brink.")
New colonies have popped up far from the airport, defying expert opinion that the butterfly is a lousy traveler. The
