[Pollinator] Surprises in the Field: Discovering a New Population of a Bog-Associated Butterfly

[Matthew Shepherd]

Any day spent in the field offers the chance of discovering something
unexpected. Xerces conservation biologist Candace Fallon did just that when
visiting a wetland in Oregon's Coast Range. Read her story on our blog:

http://www.xerces.org/blog/surprises-in-the-field-discovering-a-new-population-of-a-bog-associated-butterfly/





*Surprises in the Field: Discovering a New Population of a Bog-Associated
Butterfly*

Candace Fallon, Endangered Species Conservation Biologist



*(Lepidopterist and Xerces Society founder, Bob Pyle, contributed to this
blog.)*



One of the greatest thrills of fieldwork is finding an unexpected or
undescribed species at a field site. As a conservation biologist who
studies invertebrates, I probably get more than my fair share of new
encounters. The numbers are certainly in my favor: invertebrates make up
over 90 percent of all known animal species on Earth, and we suspect that
there are still tens (hundreds?) of thousands of undescribed species out
there. Combine that with the fact that there just aren’t that many people
looking for hidden microsnails or seep-associated caddisflies, and you have
a real opportunity for discovery.



Every animal group has its poster child, though, and invertebrates are no
exception. Of all the spineless creatures in the world, butterflies are
among the most loved and celebrated. They are also relatively easy to find
and observe, unlike a lot of our other more narrowly distributed or cryptic
species. And they have quite a fan club. Because of this, butterfly
species, particularly in depauperate areas such as the Pacific Northwest,
are fairly well documented. Finding a new species or population of
butterflies in a place like Oregon is rare—and cause for excitement.



I had a chance to experience this a couple summers ago while surveying a
montane bog in Oregon’s Coast Range with a group of other biologists. Our
mission: to find the valley silverspot butterfly (*Speyeria zerene bremneri*)
and to document all other butterfly and bumble bee species at the site.
While we did not find the silverspot (they are now thought to be extirpated
from Oregon), I did notice an abundance of unfamiliar coppers flitting all
around the open meadow. They did not look like anything I had encountered
in that area before—small and delicate, with flashes of bright orange
zigzags against cinnamon brown and dusky blue wings. The real surprise was
the crisp scalloping and distinct smattering of spots and chevrons on the
pale undersides of their wings. I netted a few, took notes and photos, and
consulted my field guide, coming up with only one possibility—a mariposa
copper (*Lycaena mariposa*). The thing was they had not been observed
anywhere else in coastal Oregon before except for a single site much
further south in the Siskiyou Mountains close to the California border.
Most of the other populations were much farther east, in the mountains of
the Cascade Range.



Fast forward two years, and butterfly experts Bob Pyle and Paul Hammond are
now analyzing specimens from this population as well as other populations
from all across the mariposa copper’s range in the intermountain west,
revising the taxonomy of the entire species, and assigning several new
subspecies designations. While the work is still in progress, it would seem
that this particular population is most closely allied with the unusual
Siskiyou population found further south along the Oregon coast. Other
unique populations exist, like those associated with coastal bogs on
Washington’s Olympic Peninsula. However, only two near-coastal populations
are now known in Oregon.



Will this prove to be a new subspecies in Oregon? If so, what does that
mean for its conservation status? Are there other populations out there, or
is this a rare glacial relict? Does it use the same host plants as other
mariposa coppers (small bog and forest cranberries)? What are its habitat
needs and life cycle patterns? It can be a long road from discovery to
answering some of these questions, but that’s part of the fun of scientific
discoveries. Sometimes all it takes is a little curiosity to get things
rolling.





________



*Matthew Shepherd*

Communications Director



*[image: Xerces-logo-CMYK-email_Outlook]*



*Protecting the Life that Sustains Us*



Stay in touch:     *xerces.org <http://www.xerces.org/>*      *Xerces blog
<http://www.xerces.org/blog/>*      *E-newsletter
<http://www.xerces.org/enewsletters/>*      *Facebook
<http://www.facebook.com/pages/The-Xerces-Society/193182577358618>*
  *Twitter
<https://twitter.com/xerces_society>*



628 NE Broadway, Ste 200, Portland, OR 97232-1324, USA

Tel: (503) 232-6639 ext. 110; Toll free: 1-855-232 6639 ext. 110; Cell:
(503) 807-1577

mdshepherd at xerces.org
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://lists.sonic.net/pipermail/pollinator/attachments/20151222/d6763f33/attachment.html>
-------------- next part --------------
A non-text attachment was scrubbed...
Name: image001.jpg
Type: image/jpeg
Size: 2958 bytes
Desc: not available
URL: <http://lists.sonic.net/pipermail/pollinator/attachments/20151222/d6763f33/attachment.jpg>