Imperiled Butterflies: Klot’s Palatka Skipper

The Klot’s Palatka Skipper (Euphyes pilatka klotsi) is a subspecies of the Palatka Skipper found only in the Florida Keys. This species hosts on Sawgrass (Cladium jamaicense) and caterpillars use bits of silk to roll the blades of sawgrass around their bodies to create a leaf shelter. The adult butterfly is a large skipper with a wingspan about 1 3/4 - 2 1/8 inches. The underside of the wings are an unmarked tawny color and the topside of the wings are dark brown marked with orange. This species has historically been a resident of the lower Florida Keys.

In October of 2005, Hurricane Wilma made landfall in Southern Florida and dramatically affected the Florida Keys. The most intense hurricane ever recorded in the Carribean basin, Wilma reached wind speeds of 185 miles per hour. Wilma made landfall as a Category 3 hurricane. High winds and two cycles of storm surge flooding devastated portions of the Keys. In Key West and other low lying areas of the lower Keys were inundated with up to three feet of salt water.

The Pine Rockland habitats on Big Pine Key and several other islands were dramatically disturbed by this storm. The Pine Rockland habitats have a broad range of plant and animal diversity that are especially suited for the habitat and occur no where else in the world. Suring Hurricane Wilma, trees were toppled and salt water washed across the rocky ground. In Pine Rocklands like Big Pine Key, plants grow in soil deposits found in limestone rock fissures and are often surrounded by areas of bare rock. Portions of these areas were swamped with salt water that permeated the soil, killing plants and salting the soil and forced endangered Key Deer to swim to safety in mangroves and on higher ground.

By 2007, studies showed a marked decline in several species of already rare plants. As Pine Rockland plants were affected, so have been species of butterflies which hosted on those plants. Among those plants that decreased in number was the host of the Klot’s Palatka Skipper, Sawgrass (Cladium jamaicense). Already imperiled, this species and several other species of butterfly fell into further decline. By the fall of 2006, the Cuban Crescent, Tropical Buckeye, Eufala Skipper, Twin-spot Skipper, Amethyst Hairstreak, Nickerbean Blue, and Florida Leafwing seemed to be gone from the Lower Keys.

Low numbers of the Klot’s Palatka Skipper are now found only in National Key Deer Preserve on Big Pine Key. Populations of this species and others that depend on the fragile remains of Pine Rockland habitat may be just a hurricane away from extinction.