Austin Butterfly Forum

Austin, Texas, is home to about 170 species of butterflies. It is also the home of the Austin Butterfly Forum, Inc., a non-profit organization dedicated to butterfly conservation and to enriching people's lives through butterflies.

The Austin Butterfly Forum is a butterfly club that holds field trips, conducts butterfly counts, promotes butterfly gardening, performs conservation activities, and meets monthly for an educational presentation. We are a community of butterfly enthusiasts who also enjoy dragonflies and other bugs.

For more details on our upcoming events, see the calendar page:

>Sept 27: “Endangered American Burying Beetle in Texas”, Kendra Bauer, University of Texas at Austin. 7 pm, Zilker Botanical Center.

The American Burying Beetle, Nicrophorus americanus, (ABB) is an endangered beetle whose range has decreased dramatically since the 1930’s. Much of the life history of this beetle is unknown, including an accurate population size, specific habitat requirements, and reasons for its decline. Without knowing these life history traits it makes it difficult if not impossible to manage this species. Current research using genetic techniques to estimate population size and migration has been very helpful in determining where this beetle is and where it is moving. We can also use historic maps and museum samples to uncover some of the past habitat of the beetle. We will then look at some of the current threats to the beetle and what we can do to conserve this amazing little insect!

Kendra Bauer is a 6th year Ecology Evolution and Behavior doctoral candidate in the Section of Integrative Biology at the University of Texas at Austin. Her passion for animals began at a young age and she became serious about conservation after her undergraduate degree in Biology and Animal Science at The University of Kentucky in Lexington. She then worked at Fossil Rim Wildlife Center (AZA accredited Animal Park, Glen Rose, Texas) for 3 ½ years getting her feet wet in the captive animal side of conservation and quickly realized she needed a PhD to accomplish her conservation goals. She began her graduate career in 2004 working on the endangered Baird’s Tapir in Central America and is finishing her PhD working on an endangered American Burying Beetle (ABB). She is using genetics and non-invasive techniques to identify migration routes, breeding populations and status of the ABB. The techniques she is using with this endangered beetle are invaluable and wide reaching tools that can be replicated on any species, including the tapir to aid in conservation.

Oct 23: Butterfly Field Trip, starting at Zilker Botanical Garden parking lot, 9 am. Details to be announced.

Oct 25: Club Meeting, Jeffrey Glassberg, Ph.D, will talk about the Best Places to Find Butterflies in the United States and Mexico.

Please Note: Admission of $5 will be charged for non members.

Jeff's books include: Butterflies through Binoculars, The East; Butterflies Through Binoculars, The West; and A Swift Guide to the Butterflies of Mexico and Central America. He is the President and founder of the North American Butterfly Association (NABA), www.naba.org, whose mission is to increase public enjoyment and conservation of butterflies. His books will be for sale at the meeting.

Zilker Botanical Garden, 7 pm.