BUTTERFLIES AND MOTHS
(Lepidoptera)
J.D. Lafontaine
ENDANGERED AND THREATENED SPECIES
Other than butterflies, most species of Lepidoptera are not well enough collected or regularly monitored in the Mixedwood Plains Ecozone to determine whether or not they are endangered or threatened. Some species of moths that have only been collected once or twice in the Ecozone may well turn out to quite common in the right habitat. Two species of butterflies restricted to southern Ontario in Canada, the Karner Blue (Lycaeides melissa) and Frosted Elfin (Callophrys irus), are currently listed as endangered species in Ontario and are protected by legislation. Both species, however, are believed to have been extirpated. A study of rare and endangered butterflies in southern Ontario (Campbell et al., 1990) listed seven species as endangered and five as threatened. Nine of these twelve species do not have extant resident populations in the Ecozone: Frosted Elfin, Karner Blue and Persius Duskywing are extirpated; Zebra Swallowtail, Pipe Vine Swallowtail, Dog Face Sulphur, Regal Fritillary, and Horace's Duskywing presently occur in Canada only as vagrants; the Hoary Edge Skipper was incorrectly reported as occurring in Ontario. The remaining three species, Duke's Skipper, Wild Indigo Duskywing, and Scalloped Sootywing, are not presently threatened in the Ecozone but are sufficiently restricted in range that they should be monitored as vulnerable species. The same could be said for Dusted Skipper, Sleepy Duskywing, Mottled Duskywing and Garita Skipper.
One species of moth, the Bog Buck Moth (Hemileuca sp.) (Fig. LEP-14), is known to be endangered. This as yet undescribed species of the Giant Silkmoth Family (Saturniidae) occurs in two fens in eastern Ontario (near White Lake (Fig. LEP-15) and Richmond) and two fen complexes in Oswego County near the shore of Lake Ontario in New York State. All populations are considered to be threatened by a variety of factors (land development, water level fluctuations that range from drought to flooding, Gypsy Moth spray programs). For similar reasons, moth species associated with other vulnerable habitats might be threatened, such as the dune species listed in table 2. One of these species, Papaipema aweme, is known only from about six specimens from southern Manitoba and the dunes in and around Pinery Provincial Park.