An effort to re-establish one of the world's most rare butterflies in northwest Ohio has succeeded so far because it has evolved like a metamorphosis of its own.

The campaign is about to enter the second of at least three phases.

Early next month, the Ohio Karner Blue Recovery Team will shift its focus to a second site at the Nature Conservancy's Kitty Todd Preserve in western Lucas County to release dozens of Karner blue butterflies raised by the Toledo Zoo.

They're doing so because they feel confident the Karner blue butterfly population at the first release site, the Julia's Savanna portion of the preserve, is strong enough to sustain itself, said Gary Haase, Kitty Todd preserve manager.

The reintroduction - America's first of an endangered butterfly - began in the summer of 1998.

First-year results showed promise. But the recovery team wanted to make sure the thumbnail-sized insect got a foothold in the Oak Openings region, a sandy belt across 22 miles of western Lucas County and parts of Henry, Fulton, and Monroe counties.

The Karner blue vanished from the Oak Openings region and other parts of Ohio about a decade earlier. The decline was attributed to loss of wild lupine, that butterfly's only known food source.

So officials continued to release more captive-bred butterflies twice a year for the next six years, while increasing efforts to grow more lupine.

Now, with that work done, they've set their sights on another part of the 700-acre Kitty Todd Preserve, the Moseley Barrens Management Unit about 1 1/2 miles away from the original release site.

Mr. Haase said butterflies will be introduced into the new area about twice a year for the next several years.

In 2006 or 2007, the team hopes to start setting butterflies free at a third site in the Oak Openings region. The site has not yet been selected.

The zoo gets its female Karner blues from Michigan's Allegan State Game Area between Grand Rapids and Kalamazoo. The females lay eggs on potted lupine at the zoo. Once the larvae mature into butterflies, they are released.

Peter Tolson, the zoo's conservation director, was not available for comment yesterday.

But he said in a statement that the zoo has 481 eggs ready to hatch, and 216 more larvae.

Officials have said the campaign to re-establish the Karner blue helps draw attention to conservation efforts in the Oak Openings region during a critical time in its history.

The delicate insect, listed as a federally endangered species in 1992, has become a symbol for those trying to save the Oak Openings from urban sprawl.

Dozens of other butterfly species now thrive in the region's rare oak savanna, such as the Persius dusky wing and frosted elfin.

Birds such as the lark sparrow and the red-headed woodpecker also have benefitted, the Nature Conservancy said.

Other groups affiliated with the project include the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Natural Resources Conservation Service, the Ohio Department of Natural Resources' Division of Wildlife, the Davey Tree Expert Co., and Maumee Valley Country Day School.

Contact Tom Henry at:

thenry@theblade.com

or 419-724-6079.

First Published June 10, 2005, 11:32 a.m.