Lycaena cupreus snowi (Snow's Lustrous Copper)

Kingdom: Animalia

Phylum: Arthropoda

Class: Insecta

Order: Lepidoptera

Family: Lycaenidae

Genus: Lycaena

Species: cupreus snowi

Snow's Lustrous Copper - Lycaena cupreus snowi

1385982

Species Extent (New Mexico)

Global Rank: G4

State Rank: S1

Rank Metadata
State Rank: S1	Rank Changed: 02/07/2025
Rank Reviewed: N/A
Reason: Snow’s Lustrous Copper (<em>Lycaena cupreus snowi</em>) is an alpine butterfly living at high elevation peaks in the southern Rocky Mountains in the western United States. The population size and trend is not known for this subspecies although there are some indications that the parent species may be declining. This butterfly has a low Extent of Occurrence (EOO) and Area of Occupancy (AOO). The western United States is continuing to get hotter and drier, due to climate change. Many butterflies respond to climate change by moving to higher elevations and as a high elevation alpine specialist this butterfly can go no higher. Therefore, a continuing decline is inferred in the area, extent and quality of its habitat. As a result at this time Snow’s Lustrous Copper is assessed as S1 in New Mexico. However, a reassessment should be done as new information becomes available.

Ecological Factors
Specificity: Narrow. Specialist or community with key requirements common.	Range Extent: <100 square km (less than about 40 square miles)
Occurences: 1 - 5	Population Size: Unknown
Area of Occupancy: Using points from GBIF.org, Toliver et al. 2001, and Butterflies of New Mexico an Area of Occupancy of 3km2 was calculated on GeoCat.	Threat Summary: N/A

State Status:

Federal Status:

USFS Status:

BLM Status:

SWAP Status: SGCN

NMRP Strategy Status:

Number of Subpopulations: 3

Number of Mapped Locations: 6

Number of Observations: 3

Observation date range: 01-01-2007 to 01-01-2016

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