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In the May/June 2008 issue of The Iowan Feature
A group of dedicated Iowans treks out on a bitter cold, late-January evening, congregating in their host’s living room and getting down to the business at hand. This isn’t some postcaucus debriefing or heated school board meeting or even a church potluck. On tonight’s agenda: an elusive butterfly. It’s a butterfly the majority of the people in this group have never seen. One that is now rarely found in Iowa except in the extreme northwest corner. One that isn’t colorful, or flashy, or exotic. In fact, it’s a small, brown, rather nondescript insect called the Oarisma poweshiek — more commonly known as the Poweshiek skipperling, and in some circles dubbed the Poweshiek skipper. What it lacks in personal flamboyance it makes up for in public support, and a committed following of Iowans is rallying around its possible return to its namesake county. The Poweshiek skipperling was discovered in Grinnell in 1870 by Henry Parker, a Grinnell College professor of chemistry and natural history, who named the butterfly after the county in which it was found. Shortly after its christening, the skipper’s fortune appeared to fall, and the butterfly has not been spotted in Poweshiek County since hobble skirts were seen on the streets of Grinnell during World War I. But its apparent absence has not stopped this group of die-hard enthusiasts from trying not only to spot this threatened butterfly but also to understand its habitat with the possible goal of reintroducing the Poweshiek skipperling to the area… READ MORE IN THIS ISSUE OF THE IOWAN subscribe now
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