IIJIMA, Japan – Since the last ice age, a butterfly species called the Reverdin’s blue (Plebejus argyrognomon, known as miyamashijimi in Japanese), has survived in the nation’s grasslands maintained by human agricultural activities. But as the country’s population ages and leaves the countryside, letting the seminatural grasslands change to forests, the butterfly is now endangered. … Continue reading Japanese butterfly conservation takes flight when integrated with human communities