When Butterflies Vanish: The Xerces Blue and the Terrifying Future Without Pollinators
- Katie Bledsoe-Weber
- Sep 30
- 5 min read
Long before the Bay Bridge and the Golden Gate, before neighborhoods and highways carved up the land, the Bay Area’s coastal dunes and wildflower fields were alive with a shimmer of blue wings. The Xerces Blue butterfly was tiny but unforgettable, a jewel that only lived here. From the sandy dunes of San Francisco out into patches across the Bay Area, this butterfly fluttered for thousands of years. And then it didn’t.
By the early 1940s, the Xerces Blue was gone. Not rare, not endangered, but extinct. Its native dune plants were bulldozed for housing and roads. The caterpillars’ food plants disappeared, and the butterfly followed. It was the very first butterfly in the United States driven to extinction by people, right here in our own backyard. The Xerces Society for Invertebrate Conservation carries its name today as both a warning and a mission: never again.
The science caught up to the story
For decades, people assumed the Xerces Blue disappeared because we destroyed its habitat. That explanation always made sense, but it wasn’t backed by hard proof.
Now science has caught up. In 2021, researchers sequenced DNA from Xerces Blue specimens in museum collections and compared them to related butterflies like the Silvery Blue. They confirmed that Xerces was a genetically distinct species, not just a local variant, and that its populations had very low genetic diversity. In other words, it was already vulnerable. When its habitat was torn up for urban development, it simply couldn’t survive.
These studies, published in journals like Biological Letters (2021) and eLife (2024), give us something we didn’t have before: proof that the extinction was directly tied to human action. More than eighty years after the last Xerces flew in the Bay Area, we now know its disappearance wasn’t just bad luck or natural decline. It was us.
That’s why the Xerces Blue is back in the headlines. Not because it has returned, but because science has confirmed its fate — and because restoration projects are now working to rebuild the dunes it once called home, even introducing its close relative, the Silvery Blue, as an ecological stand-in.
Why pollinators are everything
The Xerces Blue is not just a sad story about one butterfly. It is a flashing red light about what happens when pollinators disappear.
Pollinators are the glue holding ecosystems together. About a third of what we eat depends on them. Think coffee, apples, squash, almonds, strawberries, tomatoes, cucumbers, pumpkins. Imagine farmers’ markets and grocery stores without those. Imagine a diet stripped down to grains and starches because fruits and vegetables are no longer plentiful.
This is not a someday problem. Pollinators are already in trouble. More than twenty two percent of native pollinators in North America are at risk of extinction. Climate change is shifting bloom times so flowers and insects no longer match up. Pesticides are poisoning hives. Development keeps pushing into the spaces they need to live. When pollinators vanish, plants fail to reproduce, animals that depend on them go hungry, and food webs collapse.
The Bay Area connection
This is not an abstract crisis happening far away. We can feel it here. The Bay Area is one of the most biodiverse regions in the country. California poppies, sticky monkeyflower, ceanothus, buckwheats, lupines, manzanitas, sages, coast live oak, and toyon all thrive here. These plants evolved with our native pollinators. When we replace them with thirsty lawns or imported ornamentals, we cut the lifeline.
But when we plant natives, the landscape comes alive. Buckwheats pull in clouds of native bees. Toyon offers nectar in bloom and berries in winter. Manzanitas flower in late winter when little else does, feeding pollinators when they are most desperate. Lupines and ceanothus draw butterflies. Even yarrow attracts beneficial insects that keep ecosystems balanced.
What Bay Area yards can do
At Halcyon Yard Solutions, we see every yard as an ecosystem. What you plant and how you care for it reaches beyond your fence line. It feeds bees, butterflies, birds, and even bats. It restores balance in places that have been paved and sterilized.
Instead of large patches of lawn, imagine a yard filled with blooming natives that light up through every season. Spring with California poppies and blue eyed grass. Summer with buckwheat and hummingbird sage. Fall with goldenrod and coast sunflower. Winter with manzanita, coffeeberry, and toyon. With thoughtful design, you can have color and texture all year long while feeding pollinators when they need it most.
And here’s the key: pollinators don’t see property lines. If your yard is safe and full of food, it becomes part of a corridor linking neighborhoods, parks, and wildlands. That’s how small spaces become big solutions.
How Bay Area landscaping can heal ecosystems
Landscaping in the Bay Area is not just about curb appeal. It is about resilience. Native plants use less water, which matters in our Mediterranean climate. They thrive without chemical fertilizers. They support biodiversity instead of erasing it. And they reconnect us to the natural heritage of this place.
Every time a pollinator visits your yard, you are helping heal the Bay. Every flower that goes to seed because a bee carried pollen, every berry that grows because a butterfly visited a bloom, is part of a bigger cycle of renewal.
Why Halcyon cares
We do not just mow lawns and trim hedges. We restore, reimagine, and reconnect. The Xerces Blue may be gone, but we can make sure it is the last butterfly in the Bay Area to disappear because of our choices. With pollinator friendly design, native plant palettes, and maintenance that respects the life in the soil and air, we can transform yards into sanctuaries.
Our survival is tied to theirs. If pollinators collapse, so does the food on our tables. But when pollinators thrive, ecosystems thrive, and so do we.
Join us
The Xerces Blue is a story that cannot be rewritten. But the story of the bees, butterflies, hummingbirds, and the plants they serve is still being written every single day in the Bay Area.
Plant native. Avoid pesticides. Let your yard bloom and buzz. And if you want to go further, let us help design a pollinator positive plan for your space. Together, we can turn the Bay Area into a refuge for the creatures that keep us alive.
Because when the butterflies and the bees are thriving, so are we.
Sources
Xerces Society – About the Xerces Blue and the organization:
Wikipedia – Xerces Blue butterfly overview:
Biological Letters – Grewe et al. (2021) genomic analysis of Xerces Blue:
eLife – Westbury et al. (2024) genomic study on Xerces Blue:
Phys.org – Icon of anthropogenic extinction, Xerces Blue:
FAO – Pollinators vital to our food supply, under threat:
IPBES Global Assessment on Pollinators:
PNAS – Elevated extinction risk in over one fifth of native North American pollinators:
USDA Climate Hubs – Pollinators and climate change:
U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service – Pollinators and agriculture:
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