Most endangered butterfly full species ?

[wollastoni]

A friend of mine has asked me what are the most endangered butterfly species ?
It is not an easy question. A lot of subspecies are highly endangered, but what about full species ?

I would say :
- Orn. alexandrae
- Pap. homerus
. Pap. lampsacus (if not already extinct)
. Boloria acrocnema (if a true full species)
. Erebia christi
. Graphium levassori

any other ideas or corrections ?

[Chuck]

Papilio natewa exists only in one tiny area and is threatened by ecological destruction and collecting.

There are numerous Lep species that we know so little about it's impossible to judge how endangered they are. Some haven't even been scientifically described yet.

Papilio erskinei, for example, was only recognized as a distinct species in 1999. It has a somewhat limited range, but more important, it does not occur at anywhere near the frequency that similar species do. Why is that?

[wollastoni]

P. natewa is indeed a good example as its biotope is tiny.

[adamcotton]

I suspect that the most endangered species is small and brown.

The reason I say this is that Joe Public doesn't care about anything that looks like that, so nothing will be done to help such a species.

Adam.

[adamcotton]

Papilio erskinei, for example, was only recognized as a distinct species in 1999. It has a somewhat limited range, but more important, it does not occur at anywhere near the frequency that similar species do. Why is that?

In the research just published we were unable to obtain any sequence from the single P. erskinei male in my collection, so we still don't know what this really is. It could be a valid species or it could also be a natural hybrid, although that seems less likely as I believe there are also females of P. erskinei in some collections.

There is another taxon from that area, Papilio tryoni, which may also either be an aberration or natural hybrid, but this is only known from a very few specimens, all males. Even Tennent (1999)*, who recognised P. erskinei as a distinct species, was unable to conclusively decide what P. tryoni actually is.

Adam.

*Tennent, W.J. 1999. Notes on some Solomon Islands Papilio Linnaeus, with descriptions of four new subspecies (Lepidoptera: Papilionidae). Nachr. entomol. Ver. Apollo, N.F. 20(2): 207-230.

[adamcotton]

P. natewa is indeed a good example as its biotope is tiny.

The area is now well protected, and there are currently efforts to breed Papilio natewa for conservation purposes. Hopefully that will help.

One major enigma about this species is actually why its range is so restricted. It seems that it is only found on the Natewa Peninsula, rather than anywhere else on Vanua Levu Island.

Adam.

[Chuck]

...unable to obtain any sequence from the single P. erskinei male in my collection, so we still don't know what this really is. It could be a valid species or it could also be a natural hybrid, although that seems less likely as I believe there are also females of P. erskinei in some collections.

There is another taxon from that area, Papilio tryoni, which may also either be an aberration or natural hybrid, but this is only known from a very few specimens, all males. Even Tennent (1999)*, who recognised P. erskinei as a distinct species, was unable to conclusively decide what P. tryoni actually is.

There are female erskinei in private collections. Let me know when Round 2 genomic work is being done. If only you or Julian had mentioned the need.

The only possible source for erskinei to be a hybrid would be, so far as we know, woodfordi and tryoni. Personally, I'm dubious that tryoni is anything other than an aberration. P bridgei has not been recorded from Makira, but that's not saying much since Makira is so poorly surveyed. It's my thought that erskinei replaces, or is (i.e., ssp.), bridgei on Makira.


Papilio erskinei, along with bridgei and woodfordi pictured here: viewtopic.php?p=2635&hilit=erskinei#p2635

[Cabintom]

I suspect that the most endangered species is small and brown.

Something similar to Orachrysops niobe perhaps?

[Chuck]

There are probably hundreds of small brown or blue butterflies nearing extinction. I do wonder if some, even most, were headed toward extinction even without the help of mankind.

As well, with the new genomic capabilities, we're seeing more ssp. elevated to full species status, so it would be a shame to ignore imperiled ssp.

[Jshuey]

I suspect that the most endangered species is small and brown.

And that it hasn't been seen since the lone type specimen was collected a few decades ago.

That narrows it down to a few hundred species.

John

[Chuck]

I suspect that the most endangered species is small and brown.

And that it hasn't been seen since the lone type specimen was collected a few decades ago.

That narrows it down to a few hundred species.

John

The answer to Wollastoni's friend's question probably lies in what John said. One or more of those species (brown or otherwise) that hasn't been seen since the type was captured is likely the one(s) most facing extinction. It's probably not something big and showy. But we can't say the status of any of these type-only species because we've not seen them in a century.

[jhyatt]

Chuck said: "But we can't say the status of any of these type-only species because we've not seen them in a century."

Exactly. In a lot of cases, that might be because no one has really looked since the type was collected. Could be that the locality is no longer accessible, or collecting is forbidden there, or the species ("small and brown") isn't the sort to attract collectors. The known range of a lot of things is actually the range of collectors, not the range of the bug.

jh

[Chuck]

The known range of a lot of things is actually the range of collectors, not the range of the bug.

That is SO true. You can see it on iNaturalist, observations are highly clustered around population centers.

Graphium meeki hadn't been seen in decades, then it popped up commercially. Before that I heard rumblings that it was extinct.

One of the new ssp I described came from an island nobody had surveyed for insects.

It's not just numbers of field surveyors, it's time. My records have exceeded whole groups of citizen scientist Lep collectors simply because I spent more time in places. Look at iNaturalist- with a million (or whatever) people out there- meaning millions of field hours- all sorts of stuff pops up.

Think of all the stuff @Cabintom has shown, because he's the ONLY one in Congo (for good reason.)

Also, there's the whole not commercially viable problem. 95% of the species I captured in Solomon Islands have never been offered for sale; it's probably 99% for Ecuador. Because nobody wants them, no matter how rare- they're not unusual enough or pretty enough. So the locals don't bother looking for or catching them, and even Lep field researchers don't bother. I'm guilty of that too- it was Charlie Covell who made me collect day moths, and John Tennent scoffed at "stupid Ornithoptera" changing my attention to Lycaenidae which I'd previously just ignored.

[jonathan]

Erebia christi is found in good numbers in several localities, just its habitat (steep cliffs) are, more often than not, unreachable. But if an alpine species is endangered because of global warming, than several others are endangered too. For ex, in my opinion, Erebia flavofasciata is more rare than E. christii in certain localities.

A friend of mine has asked me what are the most endangered butterfly species ?
It is not an easy question. A lot of subspecies are highly endangered, but what about full species ?

I would say :
- Orn. alexandrae
- Pap. homerus
. Pap. lampsacus (if not already extinct)
. Boloria acrocnema (if a true full species)
. Erebia christi
. Graphium levassori

any other ideas or corrections ?