Species Information

Kingdom: Animalia
  Phylum: Arthropoda
    Class: Insecta
      Order: Lepidoptera
        Family: Nymphalidae
          Genus: Argynnis
            Species: hesperis ratonensis

Raton Mesa Northwestern Fritillary - Argynnis hesperis ratonensis

Raton Mesa Northwestern Fritillary

Image courtesy of Biota Information System of New Mexico

914562

Species Extent (New Mexico)

Status

Global Rank: G5

State Rank: S1

Rank Metadata
State Rank: S1 Rank Changed: 02/06/2025
Rank Reviewed: N/A
Reason: The Raton Mesa Northwestern Fritillary (<em>Argynnis hesperis ratonensis</em>) is endemic to the Raton Mesa complex, a unique complex of volcanic peaks and mesas in northeastern New Mexico and southeastern Colorado.This butterfly is a cold loving Pleistocene relict which has been stranded now at the southeastern extreme of its parent species' range. As a result, climate change, specifically warming temperatures and drought are the main threat to this butterfly as it has likely been being pushed to higher and higher elevations since the Pleistocene and now lives on the tops of these high mesas. With no more room to go any further up in elevation, just a small amount of climate change threatens to push this butterfly into thin air driving it into extinction. Additionally, due to the seemingly small population size any loss of individuals that results in less genetic diversity could make things grim for this butterfly. As it is thought this butterfly is completely isolated in the Raton area with no other subspecies bringing in new genetic material. This makes even smaller threats like extreme weather events, fires, development, grazing, and invasive species a major potential problem for this butterfly as they could worsen the inbreeding depression which already seems to be occurring there and break apart these mountain top metapopulations. Ultimately without direct conservation intervention the future of this butterfly seems grim. This butterfly also has an expected continuing decline in the extent and quality of its habitat. As a result, the Raton Mesa Northwestern Fritillary 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: 100-250 square km (about 40-100 square miles)
Occurences: 6 - 20 Population Size: Unknown
Area of Occupancy: Area of Occupancy was calculated on GeoCat using all known points from GBIF and iNaturalist. Threat Summary: N/A

State Status:

Federal Status:

USFS Status:

BLM Status:

SWAP Status: SGCN

NMRP Strategy Status:

Observations in Natural Heritage New Mexico Database

Number of Subpopulations: 1

Number of Mapped Locations: 1

Number of Observations: 1

Observation date range: 05-01-2006 to 05-01-2006


Species Related Publications

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