[5] Prior to the 1970s, Miami blues were reported to use grey nickerbeans (Caesalpinia bonduc) and blackbeads (Pithecellobium species) as host plants.

Other plants reported as being used by Miami blues are peacock flower (Caesalpinia pulcherrima), snowberry (Symphoricarpos), and cat's-paw blackbead (Pithecellobium unguis-cati).

[8] Before the late 20th century, the range of the Miami blue ran from Daytona Beach south around the tip of the peninsula and up to the Tampa Bay area, and throughout the Florida Keys to the Dry Tortugas.

[9] The range of the Miami blue was reduced in the second half of the twentieth century due to the loss of habitat to urban development.

The decades of fragmentation have created substantial forest edge areas along roadsides that may place insects like the Miami blue at risk.

Acting on a request from the North American Butterfly Association, the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission temporarily listed the Miami blue as endangered on an emergency basis in 2002.

In 2003 the Entomology and Nematology Department at the University of Florida began raising and breeding Miami blues, starting from about 100 eggs collected in the wild.

[12] In August and September 2006 hundreds of captive-bred caterpillars and adult Miami blues were released on Elliott Key in Biscayne National Park.

The population on Bahia Honda died out in 2010, and conservation efforts were then focused on the colonies in the Key West National Wildlife Refuge.

Another colony of breeding Miami blue butterflies was discovered in the Great White Heron National Wildlife Refuge in 2016.