Indirect negative effects of predation outweigh benefits of habitat restoration for immature stages of a wetland butterfly

Habitat restoration to create viable habitat for endangered insects has resulted in few successes, in part because practitioners focus on general indicators of habitat quality, such as plant community composition, to assess restoration success.  This approach ignores the complex suite of direct and indirect interactions that affect demographic responses of target species, and these responses may vary across life stages.  We tested the effects of two common restoration actions, tree removal and stream damming, on the strength of top-down and bottom-up forces impacting Satyrodes appalachia (Appalachian Brown) egg and larval survival using a factorial field experiment.  S. appalachia, a locally declining, wetland dependent butterfly, served as a surrogate for the federally-endangered Neonympha mitchellii francisci (St. Francis’ satyr).  We found that wetland restoration through the removal of trees more than tripled S. appalachia host plant abundance, but restoration actions did not directly affect S. appalachia egg and larval survival.  Instead, we found strong predation-mediated indirect effects of habitat manipulation on S. appalachia egg and larval survival that differed across life stages.  Our results highlight the need to consider both the direct and indirect effects of habitat restoration on the demographic responses of vulnerable insects.