Q1. What is the primary reason that Fender\'s blue butterflies are endangered? The recent increase in fire frequency and severity has greatly reduced habitat quality. The butterfly\'s primary host plant, Kincaid\'s lupine, became extinct in the 1930s. Increases in disease prevalence and predation have diminished their numbers. Urbanization and agriculture have reduced and fragmented the butterfly\'s preferred habitat. Solution Option (d) is correct: Urbanization and agriculture have reduced and fragmented the butterfly\'s prefered habitat. Fender\'s blue butterfly is an endangered subspecies of butterfly endemic to the Willamette Valley of northwestern Oregon, United States. The prime reason for its population decline is that its native prairie habitat has been largely converted to agriculture, subjected to fire suppression and invaded by non-native plants. With massive changes in the fire regime, disturbances that maintained native prairies have been greatly altered, allowing tree and shrub species to invade and shade out low-growing Kincaid\'s lupine, the species upon which this butterfly depends. Also,the non-native species such as Himalayan blackberry has aggressively overtaken open spaces. Loss of native prairie habitat has resulted in the isolation of butterfly populations. Thus, these butterfly populations are more vulnerable to natural and human-made disturbances. As the number of sites have declined and the distance between them has increased and the opportunities for adult movement between populations are reduced, which were earlier inter-connected. Thus the Fender\'s blue butterflies populations is isolated, has become endangered and faces a higher risk of extinction..

1. Q1. What is the primary reason that Fender's blue butterflies are endangered?
The recent increase in fire frequency and severity has greatly reduced habitat quality.
The butterfly's primary host plant, Kincaid's lupine, became extinct in the 1930s.
Increases in disease prevalence and predation have diminished their numbers.
Urbanization and agriculture have reduced and fragmented the butterfly's preferred habitat.
Solution
Option (d) is correct: Urbanization and agriculture have reduced and fragmented the butterfly's
prefered habitat.
Fender's blue butterfly is an endangered subspecies of butterfly endemic to the Willamette
Valley of northwestern Oregon, United States. The prime reason for its population decline is that
its native prairie habitat has been largely converted to agriculture, subjected to fire suppression
and invaded by non-native plants. With massive changes in the fire regime, disturbances that
maintained native prairies have been greatly altered, allowing tree and shrub species to invade
and shade out low-growing Kincaid's lupine, the species upon which this butterfly depends.
Also,the non-native species such as Himalayan blackberry has aggressively overtaken open
spaces.
Loss of native prairie habitat has resulted in the isolation of butterfly populations. Thus, these
butterfly populations are more vulnerable to natural and human-made disturbances. As the
number of sites have declined and the distance between them has increased and the opportunities
for adult movement between populations are reduced, which were earlier inter-connected. Thus
the Fender's blue butterflies populations is isolated, has become endangered and faces a higher
risk of extinction.