Sinai baton blue facts for kids
Quick facts for kids Sinai baton blue |
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The Pseudophilotes sinaicus, also known as the Sinai baton blue, is one of the world's tiniest butterflies. It lives only on mountainsides in a dry part of Egypt. This special area is called the Saint Katherine Protectorate in the Sinai Peninsula. The butterfly depends completely on a plant called Sinai thyme.
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Life Cycle of the Sinai Baton Blue
In spring, a female Sinai baton blue butterfly lays about 20 to 30 eggs. She lays them on the young buds of the Sinai thyme plant, usually a day after mating. After a few days, the eggs hatch into tiny larvae, which are like caterpillars. These larvae eat the buds and flowers of the Sinai thyme.
The larvae have a special relationship with a type of ant called Lepisiota obtusa. The caterpillar has two unique body parts that help with this. One is called the dorsal nectary organ. It makes sweet droplets, like honeydew, that the ants love to eat. The other is the tentacular organ. It releases special smells that tell the ants if the caterpillar is in danger. The ants then come to protect it.
However, another type of ant, Crematogaster aegyptiaca, is dangerous to the larvae. These ants often eat the caterpillars. In places where these harmful ants live, the Sinai baton blue butterflies usually cannot survive.
It takes about 21 days for the larvae to grow fully. Once they are big enough, they move down to the bottom of the thyme plant. There, they turn into pupae, which are like cocoons. The pupae stay in their cocoons all through autumn and winter. When the weather gets warmer in late spring, usually from April to June, the adult butterflies come out. The male butterflies then start looking for females to mate with.
The entire life of the Sinai baton blue butterfly relies on the Sinai thyme plant. This plant is also quite rare. It only grows in small patches on the mountains around the town of St Katherine.
Challenges for the Sinai Baton Blue
The Sinai baton blue butterfly lives in a very small area. This is mainly because it needs the Sinai thyme plant, which grows in separate patches. This butterfly is not a strong flier. It usually cannot fly more than 100 meters (about 330 feet).
Because of this, the Sinai baton blue lives in scattered groups. Each group lives on its own patch of thyme. If a group on one patch dies out, it can only come back if butterflies from another patch fly over to it. But since they don't fly far, it's hard for them to reach distant patches. This means two main things affect their survival:
- Patch size: Bigger patches usually have more butterflies. This makes them less likely to die out.
- Distance between patches: If patches are far apart, it's harder for butterflies to move between them. This makes it harder for a patch to be re-populated if its butterflies disappear.
The areas where the thyme grows can change. This is due to things like animals eating the plants, people collecting the plants too much, and changes in the climate. These issues affect how much habitat the butterfly has. They are problems that many animals face when their homes are broken up into smaller pieces.
Factors Affecting Sinai Thyme Patches
The Sinai thyme plant, which is vital for the butterfly, faces its own challenges.
Grazing and the Thyme Plant
The Bedouin people have lived in the St Katherine area for about 1500 years. Today, around 4500 Bedouins live near the town. Most families keep small herds of goats and sheep. These animals are very important for their lives. They provide meat, milk, wool, and other materials.
The herds always need food. Because the climate in St Katherine is very dry, and animal food is expensive, grazing is often the only option. In the past, the Bedouins had a system called helf. This was an agreement to stop grazing in certain valleys for a period of time. This helped protect the plants. However, this system is not used much anymore. This puts many plant species at risk.
The Bedouin lifestyle has also changed. More people live in one place instead of moving around. This has changed where and how much grazing happens. Studies have shown that grazing is less common in higher valleys and those far from villages. Grazing can harm the health of plants. Sinai thyme is a favorite plant for goats and sheep because it is not poisonous like some other plants.
Currently, the amount of grazing, combined with normal year-to-year temperature changes, is not a big threat to the Sinai baton blue. However, if grazing increases and temperatures rise more in the future, it could cause this small butterfly to disappear completely. Researchers found that even if goats ate 60% of the thyme, the butterflies would likely survive. But if average temperatures went up just a little bit past a certain point, the entire butterfly population could suddenly crash.
Over-collection of Sinai Thyme
The Sinai region is rich in medicinal plants, especially around St Katherine. The St Katherine Protected Area has over 100 types of medicinal and herbal plants. Many of these are at risk because people collect too many of them.
When people collect too many plants, especially combined with grazing, it can push many plant species towards extinction. In the last ten years, uncontrolled human activities have threatened unique and rare plants. They have also caused some plant communities to disappear. This has led to more unwanted plant species growing in lower valleys and near settlements.
Sinai thyme is one of the plants that suffers from being over-collected. Bedouins use it as a medicinal plant. It can also be sold in Cairo for a high price. Collecting too much Sinai thyme can completely remove one or more patches of this plant. Losing these patches of Sinai thyme is very bad for the Sinai baton blue butterfly. It can cause entire groups of butterflies to die out, and they might not be able to come back from other areas.
