Species Information

Kingdom: Animalia
  Phylum: Arthropoda
    Class: Insecta
      Order: Lepidoptera
        Family: Hesperiidae
          Genus: Agathymus
            Species: neumoegeni carlsbadensis

Carlsbad Agave Borer - Agathymus neumoegeni carlsbadensis

Carlsbad Agave Borer

Image courtesy of Biota Information System of New Mexico

292792

Species Extent (New Mexico)

Status

Global Rank: G4

State Rank: S1

Rank Metadata
State Rank: S1 Rank Changed: 03/21/2000
Rank Reviewed: 03/21/2000
Reason: Agathymus neumoegeni carlsbadensis also known as the Carlsbad Agave Borer is middle elevation upper sonoran and montane subspecies residing in southeastern New Mexico. Our knowledge of this subspecies is very limited and there are distinct gaps in our knowledge of this taxas geographic range, population size and trend, life history, and threats. However, currently we know this taxa exists in a very small geographic range and has a wide range of potential threats affecting it. Additionally, this taxa has not been identified within the last twenty years and there are no available records. This is extremely concerning especially for a butterfly as they are often observed through citizen science networks or local monitoring. However, there are no iNaturalist records in the last twenty years and the taxa has not been found by the New Mexico Butterfly Monitoring Network. Drawing an AOO off of this we would get one that is 0km2 with no observations qualifying the subspecies as critically endangered. Additionally, with no data we draw a range of locations going from zero to three which is the total locations available from all the data on this taxa. Additionally, Forister et al. (2023) considers this species to be one of the most imperiled species in the west based on several biological and ecological factors. This taxa seems to have a declining EOO and AOO and the causes of this decline currently are not well understood as a result a continuing decline in EOO and AOO are estimated for this subspecies. Additionally, reduced moisture is likely to lead to shorter life spans and reduced mating success resulting in fewer mature individuals as well. As a result this taxa is currently listed as Critically Endangered under criteria B2ab(i,ii,v). However, a reassessment should be done if more information becomes available.
 
Ecological Factors
Specificity: Very narrow. Specialist or community with key requirements scarce. Range Extent: 1000-5000 square km (about 400-2000 square miles)
Occurences: 6 - 20 Population Size: Unknown
Area of Occupancy: This butterfly has an Area of Occupancy of 192km2 using all known occurrence records. Threat Summary: N/A

State Status:

Federal Status:

USFS Status: R3 SCC

BLM Status: Watch

SWAP Status: SGCN

NMRP Strategy Status:

Observations in Natural Heritage New Mexico Database

Number of Subpopulations: 0

Number of Mapped Locations: 0

Number of Observations: 0


Species Related Publications

Show