Oeneis alberta capulinensis (Capulin Mountain Alberta Arctic)

Kingdom: Animalia

Phylum: Arthropoda

Class: Insecta

Order: Lepidoptera

Family: Nymphalidae

Genus: Oeneis

Species: alberta capulinensis

Capulin Mountain Alberta Arctic - Oeneis alberta capulinensis

1381557

Species Extent (New Mexico)

Global Rank: G5

State Rank: S1

Rank Metadata
State Rank: S1	Rank Changed: 02/03/2025
Rank Reviewed: N/A
Reason: <em>Oeneis alberta capulinensis</em> also known as the Capulin Mountain Arctic is a subspecies currently known to inhabit a small complex of volcanic mesas in far northern New Mexico and extreme southern Colorado. The subspecies has a very small range in New Mexico and it has not been recently seen at any of its occurrence points except for one. Additionally, this taxon is highly threatened by warming temperatures, drought, invasive species, and extreme weather events any of which could bring on the extinction of this subspecies. Currently the subspecies is only recently known from one location which is a small portion of the Raton Mesa Complex around Raton New Mexico. However, more sampling may reveal this taxa to exist on other mesas and isolated volcanic peaks efforts to survey for this taxa there should be done soon. If this taxa does exist only in the one location then it likely has quite small population numbers. The Capulin Mountain Arctic has also been documented to be declining due to climate change as its population steadily declined and eventually extirpated at Capulin Volcano National Monument. This subspecies is expected to continue declining as climate change and other factors further affect it. As a result of all of this the subspecies has been 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: 1 - 5	Population Size: Unknown
Area of Occupancy: The Area of Occupancy for this butterfly is 4km2 in New Mexico. This was calculated on GeoCat with data from GBIF.org, Toliver et al. 2001, Butterflies of New Mexico and iNaturalist.	Threat Summary: N/A

State Status:

Federal Status:

USFS Status:

BLM Status:

SWAP Status: SGCN

NMRP Strategy Status:

Number of Subpopulations: 2

Number of Mapped Locations: 15

Number of Observations: 26

Observation date range: 04-22-1968 to 05-20-2004

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