Jana Johnson was a struggling grad student in 2003 when she first met the butterfly that would change her life.
, but Longcore kept records of the find. The surveyors found about half a dozen blues that day, he said. Using a formula for counting butterflies, they calculated there were likely 69 Palos Verdes blue butterflies on the site — the only remaining population in the world.
Johnson reasoned that the blues needed help to multiply. After three years working with Mattoni, she got permission from the project funders to try her own protocols on a small group: She kept ants away from the cages and in addition to providing the plants, she began hand-feeding 18 females with locally sourced honey water.Under Mattoni’s protocols, the butterflies had been producing about 200 pupae each year, Johnson said.
Her rocky progress was made worse by two unsupportive advisors — one of whom called her after her second son’s birth and said, “You have no business seeking education nor employment. It is your duty to stay home and raise those boys.” Jana Johnson peers inside a rustic “honeymoon suite” cage, which allows captive butterflies to mate and lay their eggs on the deerweed plant inside.By the time Johnson took over the Butterfly Project in 2006, saving the PV blues had become her new dissertation — the one that would earn her a PhD in 2008.
“Let’s find you a space,” she said, and between the lion and tigers, the new Butterfly Project was born.David Torres, a student intern for the Butterfly Project, covers the cages with a blanket to project them from nighttime chills. Bowls of soapy water prevent ants from invading the outdoor structures.
Moorpark College student Thea Zlatov, 19, left, and Morgan Hickey, 18, load endangered Palos Verdes blue butterflies for transport to a release area in the wild.As for the captive butterflies mating in the wild? During their four butterfly releases this spring, Johnson’s helpers quickly spotted — and photographed — multiple mating couples clinging to deerweed.
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