Megathymus ursus (Ursine Giant-Skipper) | Natural Heritage New Mexico

Kingdom: Animalia

Phylum: Arthropoda

Class: Insecta

Order: Lepidoptera

Family: Hesperiidae

Genus: Megathymus

Species: ursus

Ursine Giant-Skipper - Megathymus ursus

354855

Species Extent (New Mexico)

Global Rank: G4

State Rank: S1

Rank Metadata
State Rank: S1	Rank Changed: 02/13/2025
Rank Reviewed: 07/31/1996
Reason: The Ursine Giant-Skipper (<em>Megathymus ursus</em>) is an extremely rare and localized butterfly native to the mountains of southern New Mexico where it can be found in grasslands and oak woodlands where its sole host plants, Yuccas can be found. This rare species has a small, localized, and disjunct range resulting in a small Extent of Occurrence (EOO). However, it has a much lower Area of Occupancy (AOO) due to its rarity and localized nature. Additionally, this butterfly faces many threats however, perhaps most prevalently host plant decline due to drought, grazing, fire suppression and other threats. In New Mexico the butterfly is currently unknown from the Gila and bootheel region. Currently, the population size and trend for this species are not known and efforts are needed to determine this information. As a result, this species is currently assessed as S1 in New Mexico however, a reassessment should be done if more information becomes available.

Ecological Factors
Specificity: Narrow. Specialist or community with key requirements common.	Range Extent: 5000-20,000 square km (about 2000-8000 square miles)
Occurences: 1 - 5	Population Size: Unknown
Area of Occupancy: An Area of Occupancy of 5km2 was calculated on GeoCat using all known occurrence records from GBIF.org, Toliver et al. 2001 and Butterflies of New Mexico.	Threat Summary: N/A

State Status:

Federal Status:

USFS Status:

BLM Status:

SWAP Status:

NMRP Strategy Status:

Number of Subpopulations: 0

Number of Mapped Locations: 0

Number of Observations: 0

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