The current issue of the Stanford Univ. alumni magazine has an article about attempts to revive extinct species, and uses as illustration
Butterfly

with this commentary:
"Once endemic to San Francisco’s Sunset District, the Xerces blue is thought to be the first American butterfly species lost due to urban development. Its L.A. cousin, the Palos Verdes blue, is being bred in labs and could serve as a suitable surrogate."

VN knew all about this extinction, as a member (probably an honorary member) of the Xerces Society, founded by Robert Michael Pyle in 1971 ("Between Climb and Cloud: Nabokov Among the Lepidopterists," Nabokov's Butterflies, 54-5).  The Stanford Magazine misses an opportunity to rehearse the charming history of N's sojourn on the Stanford campus ("The Farm"), summer '41, but we can't have everything, can we?

Robert Roper
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