After Hurricane Andrew ripped through South Florida in 1992, the already-scarce Miami blue butterfly almost went extinct: No one recorded a single sighting for years. Finally, in 1999, a cheer went up ...

In 1996, the Category 2 list was abolished, and even the butterfly's third-rate listing status was removed. In 2003, 19 of the remaining Hermes copper populations were destroyed by fires that ripped ...