[LEPS-L:8012] Re: Monarch extinction

John Shuey jshuey at tnc.org
Tue Nov 28 14:42:36 EST 2000


Here's a list of extinct and presumably extinct (or missing in action - not seen
for decades) butterfly taxa from the US that was pulled down from the Bioserve
website (took about 3 minutes to conduct the search).  I simply searched species
and subspecies known to be extinct (GX or TX) and those thought to be extinct (GH
and TH).  Here's what the US heritage programs think:

<http://www.natureserve.org/aboutd.htm>  If you go to this link, you can probably
search each species individually to see what the contributing factors were.

Invertebrates Insects

  IILEPH2072
           Calephelis rawsoni freemani
              FREEMAN'S METALMARK
                                       G4TH
                                                    USA:
                                                        TX

IILEPN7014
           Cercyonis pegala wheeleri
              WHEELER'S SATYR
                                        G5TX
                                                    USA:
                                                        CA
IILEPN7033
           Cercyonis sthenele sthenele
              GREAT BASIN WOOD NYMPH
                                        G5TX
                                                    USA:
                                                        CA
IILEPP7010
           Euploea eleutho
              MARIANES EUPLOEA BUTTERFLY
                                        GXQ

  IILEPG4025
           Glaucopsyche lygdamus xerces
              XERCES BLUE
                                        G5TX
                                                    USA:
                                                        CA
IILEPG8019
           Icaricia icarioides pheres
              PHERES BLUE
                                        G5TX
                                                    USA:
                                                        CA

   IILEP99012
           Neophasia menapia tehachapina
              PINE WHITE
                                        G5TX
                                                    USA:
                                                        CA
IILEP90022
           Parnassius clodius strohbeeni
              STROBEEN'S PARNASSIAN
                                        G5TX
                                                    USA:
                                                        CA
IILEPG1012
           Philotes sonorensis extinctus
              SONORA BLUE
                                       G3G4TX
                                                    USA:
                                                        CA

   IILEPJ6142
           Speyeria adiaste atossa
              ATOSSA
                                       G1G2TX
                                                    USA:
                                                        CA

   IILEPJ609H
           Speyeria callippe ssp. 1
              WILLAMETTE CALLIPPE FRITILLARY
                                        G5TH
                                                    USA:
                                                        OR

   IILEPJ6089
           Speyeria zerene myrtleae
              MYRTLE'S SILVERSPOT
                                        G5TX
                                             LE
                                                    USA:
                                                        CA

   IILEPJA053
           Thessalia leanira obsoleta
              LEANIRA CHECKERSPOT
                                       G4G5TX
                                                    USA:
                                                        CA

--
John Shuey
Director of Conservation Science
Indiana Office of The Nature Conservancy

phone:  317-923-7547
fax:  317-923-7582
email:  Jshuey at tnc.org






rworth at oda.state.or.us wrote:

> Chris,  I'll start with some of the obvious ones.  In the SF bay area
> where I grew up you have Glaucopsyche xerces, Cercyonis sthenele
> sthenele from the city proper and Parnassius clodius(phoebus?
> smintheus?-- don't remember) strohbeeni in the Santa Cruz Mts.  All
> three really seem gone for good.  I also worked on a project in the
> Florida Keys looking for a quite possibly unique race of Hesperia
> meskei.  Was not found by us and hasn't been seen in years.  Needs
> further looking into.
> Cheers,   Rich
> P.S.  New conspiracy theory....H. meskei was abducted by pregnant chads.
>
> >I agree that there are an awful lot of species on the brink of extinction
> >but as long as there is a place for them to live naturally they should
> >survive. What I want is a count of those we definitely know have gone
> >extinct. That is what the skeptics I converse with ask for! Generalities
> >and approximations just will not do. How can we have credibility as
> >conservationists if we cannot produce the number of species lost? How can
> >our predictions of rate of species loss be taken seriously if we have no
> >numbers of species historically lost?
> >   I am surprised that such a count has not been prepared. Send me your
> >butterfly candidates so we can put together a list here. Remember that,
> >like dimpled chads, cryptic species do count!
> >.............Chris Durden
> >
> >
> >At 09:13  28/11/00 -0500, you wrote:
> >  >
> >  >
> >  >"Chris J. Durden" wrote:
> >  >>   Does anyone have or have a reference to a list of species that have
> >  >> become extinct in the last 400 years? A geographic plot of the last known
> >  >> colony of each of these species would be instructive. I mean totally gone
> >  >> like Passenger Pigeon or Dodo, not almost gone like Ivory Billed
> >Woodpecker.
> >  >>   Do we even have a firm list of butterfly species that have
> >become extinct
> >  >> in North America, or in Europe? Is this list as small as I expect, or can
> >  >> someone substantiate a robust list?
> >  >> ............Chris Durden
> >  >
> >  >wellll ... they keep showing up again, don't they. The bugs, anyway. Or
> >  >they're subspecies that you can't tell from their nearest relative
> >  >without dissection or DNA analysis.
> >  >
> >  >I think the real problem is habitat destruction, and if only we could
> >  >focus on that, we'd do better. The butterflies are indicators, of
> >  >course, but the people are not fooled by our invention of snail darters
> >  >in trouble, or flower flies or whatever.
> >  >We're willing to worry about *us* in trouble, but we've accustomed the
> >  >"great unwashed" to the notion that a plant lost means a cancer cure
> >  >lost. It is improbable that any lep will provide a cure for lymphoma. In
> >  >fact, I bet you guys aren't even checking for that. ;-)
> >  >As for the mammals, we keep finding them just before they vanish ...
> >  >tiny lemurs and such. There are a lot on the brink; actually gone is
> >  >another story. And, again, the splitters have muddied the waters.
> >  >Anne Kilmer
> >  >Palm Beach County
> >  >The butterfly ballot is also an endangered species, and does anybody
> >  >care? Not only a subspecies, but a pest.
>
> Richard A. Worth
> Oregon Department of Agriculture
> Plant Division
> rworth at oda.state.or.us
> (503) 986-6461
>
>
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--
John Shuey
Director of Conservation Science
Indiana Office of The Nature Conservancy

phone:  317-923-7547
fax:  317-923-7582
email:  Jshuey at tnc.org



 
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