occurs (regularly, as a native taxon) in multiple nations

Canada

Origin: Native

Regularity: Regularly occurring

Currently: Present

Confidence: Confident

Type of Residency: Year-round

United States

Origin: Native

Regularity: Regularly occurring

Currently: Present

Confidence: Confident

Type of Residency: Year-round

Global Range: (200,000-2,500,000 square km (about 80,000-1,000,000 square miles)) Currently (mostly subspecies lakota) vicinity of Ottawa, Ontario, west-northwest including parts of Michigan, Wisconsin, Minnesota, and the Dakotas, through much of central and western Canada, except absent from most of British Columbia; also disjunct population clusters in the Bighorn Mountains of at least Wyoming (subspecies apsalooke), in parts of Colorado, Arizona, Utah (subspecies anasazi), and in the southern Appalachians (subspecies maconensis). P. b. batesii also occurred farther east in Ontario and adjacent Quebec, as well as in at least Maine, New York, Pennsylvania, West Virginia, and Virginia, with the last confirmed US records in New York in the 1970s and near Philadelphia in the early 1960s. There are no known valid 20th century records for Maine, New Jersey, or West Virginia, and the species apparently did not occur in the other five New England states.

Comments: Habitat varies in different part of the range. Various types of glades, barrens, savannahs, and artificial openings such as pastures have been reported, generally in more or less wooded country, for subspecies BATESII (see Scott, 1994). In Canada and parts of the Midwest and Plains states subspecies Lakota uses various more or less open dry habitats like oak savannahs, alvars, open grassy pine barrens, ponderosa pine savannas, aspen parkland, meadows. More mesic sites are probably used in the western most part of the range such as Alberta. Scott questions the accuracy of reports of moist habitats farther east. The two western subspecies occur in canyons. Subspecies MACONENSIS of the southern Appalachians occurs in openings, glades, open woods, and roadsides in often heavily forest regions but its habitats are probably better characterized as woodland-hardwood than as forest.

Non-Migrant: No. All populations of this species make significant seasonal migrations.

Locally Migrant: No. No populations of this species make local extended movements (generally less than 200 km) at particular times of the year (e.g., to breeding or wintering grounds, to hibernation sites).

Locally Migrant: No. No populations of this species make annual migrations of over 200 km.

Nonmigratory but presumably moves around between habitat patches.

Comments: Larvae eat foliage of ASTER spp. Apparently few species are actually used. At least few have been documented, specifically Aster undulatus for subspecies BATESII; A.LAEVIS for subspecies Lakota, and A.GLAUCODES for the two western subspecies. See Scott (1994) for a detailed discussion of foodplant records.

Note: For many non-migratory species, occurrences are roughly equivalent to populations.

Estimated Number of Occurrences: 81 to >300

Comments: A widespread species in western Canada with hundreds of populations, very possibly only a few hundred populations, or less, for all subspecies in US range, but reliable information is not available. Probably no occurences of pure P. b. batesii remain, since by Scott's criteria most remaining Ontario populations would be subspecies lakota.

10,000 to >1,000,000 individuals

Comments: Probably some good EOs 100-1000 adults in most years, but often reported as rare.

Comments: Unlike most sympatric related species, P. BATESII is essentially single brooded. A small partial second brood definitely does occur in a few areas, e.g. about the end of July in Lambton County, Ontario (Schweitzer, see Allen, 1997 for illustration of the same population) and has been reported in Michigan. Such second broods are probably rare, of little or no importance, and apparently confined to a small area. Larvae normally enter diapause as fourth instars (Scott, 1996). The peak flight season is usually in June but sometimes July northward or at high altitudes (e.g. subspecies APSALOOKE). Subspecies BATESII often started in late May. Dates for Manitoba are May 22 to August 16 (Scott, 1994) and may include the earliest and latest for the species and may suggest a partial second brood.

Canada

Rounded National Status Rank: N4 - Apparently Secure

United States

Rounded National Status Rank: N3 - Vulnerable

Rounded Global Status Rank: G4 - Apparently Secure

Reasons: This rank reflects extirpation over a significant part of the range eastward, reported rarity in some areas, lack of really precise status information in most of the US range, doubt about the causes of the eastern decline, and likely threats in the next few decades due to climate change in the US part of the range. However, overall the species would appear to be secure in a large part of central and western Canada, perhaps even common in some regions, and is perhaps secure in some parts of the USA.

Global Short Term Trend: Relatively stable to decline of 30%

Comments: Relatively stable in most of central and western Canada, and apparently in the southern Appalachians, not known to be declining in western USA. With subspecies batesii essentially extinct, the species as a whole may no longer be declining much. Subspecies maconesis is loosing some habitat to development in North Carolina.

Global Long Term Trend: Decline of 30-50%

Comments: Disappeared from most of the eastern portion of the range over a period of about a century, however for the species as a whole that is much less than half the range.

Degree of Threat: C : Not very threatened throughout its range, communities often provide natural resources that when exploited alter the composition and structure over the short-term, or communities are self-protecting because they are unsuitable for other uses

Comments: Gypsy moth spraying and second home development are the main concerns in the Appalachians. Deer played a substantial role, or may have essentially caused, the loss of this species in the Pinery Park-Port Franks area of Ontario, but otherwise the disappearance of subspecies batesii is really mostly unexplained. Several invasive plants could become threats in the Appalachians. It may or may not be a coincidence that the current range of the species lies almost entirely outside of that for Phyciodes tharos which has possibly become more common northward in recent decades while subspecies batesii was dying out. Since the collapse of subspecies batesii is largely unexplained, there is no assurance that subspecies lakota or possibly others will not also decline. Arguably threat should be given as unknown, but for the short term the species does not appear to be seriously threatened in most of what is left of its range. However, this may change southward, and at lower elevations, as the climate warms.

Biological Research Needs: It would be useful to know how sensitive larvae of subspecies maconensis actually are to gypsy moth spraying with Btk. Such sensitivity varies greatly among species, and can also differ a lot between instars. Based on the phenology of this butterfly, exposure would be likely for late instar larvae.

Global Protection: Unknown whether any occurrences are appropriately protected and managed

Comments: Doubtless on numerous public lands in Canada, Midwestern and western United States and secure in many. Several populations of P. b. batesii disappeared from public lands, and it not clear whether the remaining intermediate populations are protected, or even defensible. Many populations of subspecies maconensis are on U.S. Forest Service or National Park Service lands. The other two subspecies also occur at least in part on federal lands.

Needs: Colonies of P. b. maconensis should be spared from Gypsy Moth spraying, at least until their sensitivity to Btk becomes bettter known. Deer and invasive plants are likely to becoem serious issues in parts of the range.

Stewardship Overview: Information on response, especially of subspecies batesii, to fires is badly needed. Effects of occasional wildfires are likely to differ from those of ultrafrequnet rotational burning. Burn EOs, especially dry ones, in patches at intervlas of greater than five years or develop other strategies for successional sites. Consult works of Ann Swengel and others for subspecies lakota and apply these findings for now to subspecies batesii. Management plans for subspecies batesii in North Carolina-Georgia and Quebec-Ontario are urgently needed.

Comments: Scott (1994) and Gatrelle (1998) are followed here. Scott recognizes four subspecies, three of them named as new, and Gatrelle names another. Three of these four subspecies appear to be of some degree of conservation concern. The northeastern Phyciodes batesii batesii appears to be essentially extinct, although some populations intermediate between this and P. b. lakota are probably still extant in Ontario. P. b. batesii has its own global rank documentation etc., as does the less rare P. batesii macoensis Gatrelle (1998) from the southern Appalachians. The widespread Canadian and north central US subspecies is P. batesii lakota Scott (1994), and the T-rank for that subspecies largely drives the global rank for the entire species. Gatrelle questions the distinctness of P. b. lakota from P. b. batesii. Subspecies APSALOOKE Scott, 1994 has a limited range in the Bighorn Mountains of Wyoming and probably Montana and subspecies P. b. anasazi Scott (1994) ranges in parts of Colorado, Arizona, Utah and Wyoming. The latter two subspecies may, as Scott suggests (p.62), constitute a separate species, but the other three appear to be one species. Eastward, P. cocyta and P. diminutor were both misidentified as P. batesii by collectors who encountered them and realized their specimens differed from P. tharos.