Understanding the importance of dispersal to populations of patchily distributed species is critical to the fields of population ecology, evolutionary biology, and conservation biology. Dispersal can influence population fluctuations through differences in immigration and emigration rates and, through gene flow, can have a major influence on the genetic structure of populations. In addition, the regional persistence of a species prone to local extinction can depend on levels of dispersal high enough to allow frequent recolonization of vacant habitat patches. This area has a strong theoretical basis, but there has been relatively little empirical research directed at answering the important questions. This study examines the role of dispersal in the population dynamics and genetic structure of a patchily distributed butterfly species, Euphilotes enoptes. The interplay of patch quality and isolation with the dynamics of local populations by coupling experiments with observations of individual behavior and year-to-year population fluctuations will be studied. Patch isolation and size will be related to gene flow and the allocation of genetic variability through a survey of mtDNA markers. Finally, by studying two metapopulations, The generalizability of results from a single metapopulation of a species will be examined.
