Species Information

Kingdom: Animalia
  Phylum: Arthropoda
    Class: Insecta
      Order: Lepidoptera
        Family: Lycaenidae
          Genus: Euphilotes
            Species: rita coloradensis

Colorado Rita Dotted-Blue - Euphilotes rita coloradensis

Colorado Rita Dotted-Blue

Image courtesy of Biota Information System of New Mexico

1381550

Species Extent (New Mexico)

Status

Global Rank: G3

State Rank: S1

Rank Metadata
State Rank: S1 Rank Changed: 02/11/2025
Rank Reviewed: N/A
Reason: The Colorado Rita Blue (Euphilotes rita coloradensis) resides in transition zone prairies in the rocky mountains region. It is thought that this butterfly has been experiencing long term steady declines for the last 200 years and that it may still be declining. This butterfly is also potentially affected by a large range of threats including overgrazing, undergrazing, wildfire, extreme weather events, climate change, inbreeding depression, and land use change. There are many gaps in our knowledge of this subspecies life history and of the severity and impact of these threats, determination of which would allow for more accurate assessment. This butterfly is however, also known to be quite localized, isolated, and rare. In fact looking at data from GBIF.org the butterfly has only been seen three times in the last decade and six times in the last twenty years which is unusual for charismatic butterfly species especially one with a seemingly widespread range although it is sparsely distributed within that range. As a result, locations have been drawn around these individual occurrence records with the most likely threat likely to be fire or extreme weather events. This butterfly's habitat extent and quality are also expected to continue to decline due to invasive species, grazing, development and wildfire as a result, at this time the Colorado Rita Blue has been assessed as S1 in New Mexico. However, with more information a lower or higher category may be deemed more appropriate and as such a reassessment should be done if more information becomes available.
 
Ecological Factors
Specificity: Unknown Range Extent: 20,000-200,000 square km (about 8000-80,000 square miles)
Occurences: 6 - 20 Population Size: Unknown
Area of Occupancy: Using points from GBIF.org an Area of Occupancy of 6km2 was calculated on GeoCat. 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: 0

Number of Mapped Locations: 0

Number of Observations: 0


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