The Uncompahgre fritillary butterfly (''Clossiana improba acrocnema'') is a species of

butterfly Butterflies are insects in the macrolepidopteran clade Rhopalocera from the Order (biology), order Lepidoptera, which also includes moths. Adult butterflies have large, often brightly coloured wings, and conspicuous, fluttering flight. The ...

in the Order

Lepidoptera Lepidoptera ( ) is an order (biology), order of insects that includes butterfly, butterflies and moths (both are called lepidopterans). About 180,000 species of the Lepidoptera are described, in 126 Family (biology), families and 46 Taxonomic r ...

: Family

Nymphalidae The Nymphalidae are the largest family of butterflies, with more than 6,000 species distributed throughout most of the world. Belonging to the superfamily Papilionoidea, they are usually medium-sized to large butterflies. Most species have a red ...

that is

endemic Endemism is the state of a species being found in a single defined geographic location, such as an island, state, nation, country or other defined zone; organisms that are indigenous to a place are not endemic to it if they are also found elsew ...

to Colorado, USA.U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (2018). Uncompahgre Fritillary Butterfly (''Clossiana improba acrocnema'') 5-Year Review: Summary and Evaluation. Western Slope Office, Colorado Ecological Services, Grand Junction, Colorado. Discovered in the summer of 1978, the Uncompahgre fritillary was first described as a subspecies of ''

Boloria improba ''Boloria improba'', the dingy fritillary, is a butterfly of the family Nymphalidae. In Europe it is only found in small parts of Scandinavia, more specifically the border region between Norway, Sweden and Finland. The species is also present i ...

'', commonly known as the dingy fritillary but further genetic data supported classifying them as a full species.

Distribution

The Uncompahgre fritillary was first found above tree-line at

Uncompahgre Peak Uncompahgre Peak () is the List of mountain peaks of the Rocky Mountains#Highest prominent summits, sixth highest summit of the Rocky Mountains of North America and the U.S. state of Colorado. The Topographic prominence, prominent fourteener i ...

, located in Hinsdale County,

Colorado Colorado (, other variants) is a state in the Mountain West subregion of the Western United States. It encompasses most of the Southern Rocky Mountains, as well as the northeastern portion of the Colorado Plateau and the western edge of t ...

, USA by Larry Gall, Felix Sperling, Scott Graham, Kathleen Shaw, and Wendy Roberts working out of the

Rocky Mountain Biological Laboratory The Rocky Mountain Biological Laboratory (also known by its acronym RMBL — pronounced 'rumble') is a high-altitude biological field station located near Crested Butte, in the abandoned mining town of Gothic, Colorado in the West Elk Mountains. T ...

. A few years following, another population was found at

Redcloud Peak Redcloud Peak is a mountain peak of over fourteen thousand feet in the U.S. state of Colorado. It is located in the San Juan Mountains in Hinsdale County approximately 7 miles (11 km) south west of Lake City. Historical names *Red Moun ...

, about 10 miles south of

The species is

to the northern

San Juan Mountains The San Juan Mountains is a high and rugged mountain range in the Rocky Mountains in southwestern Colorado and northwestern New Mexico. The area is highly mineralized (the Colorado Mineral Belt) and figured in the gold and silver mining industry ...

and the southern

Sawatch Range The Sawatch Range or Saguache RangeThe place name "Saguache” is pronounced “Sawatch” . This name derives from the Ute language noun "''sawup''" meaning "sand dunes" and is spelled using the Spanish language version of this name "Saguach ...

in parts of Gunnison County, Hinsdale County, and Chaffee County of southwestern Colorado, USA and has one of the smallest known ranges of all

North American butterflies North is one of the four compass points or cardinal directions. It is the opposite of south and is perpendicular to east and west. ''North'' is a noun, adjective, or adverb indicating direction or geography. Etymology The word ''north'' is ...

.Fish and Wildlife Service. 1994. Uncompahgre Fritillary Butterfly Recovery Plan. Denver, Colorado. 20 pp. Since their discovery, small populations of Uncompahgre fritillaries have been discovered at 9 other locations within this region and are monitored annually. Their closest genetic relative is '' Clossiana improba harryi'' which has only been found within the

Wind River Mountains The Wind River Range (or "Winds" for short) is a mountain range of the Rocky Mountains in western Wyoming in the United States. The range runs roughly NW–SE for approximately . The Continental Divide follows the crest of the range and inclu ...

in Wyoming.Alexander, K.D. and A.G. Keck. 2018. Uncompahgre Fritillary Butterfly Monitoring, Inventory, and Mapping: 2017 Report and Status. 28 pages. Other similar looking species of butterflies are found within these habitats including the Varied checkerspot (''Euphydryas anicia''), Frieja fritillary (''Clossiana frieja''), and Arctic fritillary (''Clossiana chariclea''). The habitat characteristics of these butterflies include

alpine tundra Alpine tundra is a type of natural region or biome that does not contain trees because it is at high elevation, with an associated alpine climate, harsh climate. As the latitude of a location approaches the poles, the threshold elevation for alp ...

environments above tree-line (3800-4200m above sea level) that are northeast facing sloped meadows containing moderate amounts of moisture throughout the year, mostly from winter snowpack and rainfall during monsoon seasons.

Host plant

The Uncompahgre fritillary is a

specialist species A generalist species is able to thrive in a wide variety of environmental conditions and can make use of a variety of different resources (for example, a heterotroph with a varied diet). A specialist species can thrive only in a narrow range of env ...

regarding their larval food plant and egg-laying site. They can be found in habitats containing patches of their host plant, snow willow ''( Salix reticulata spp. nivalis''), a dwarf willow that is structurally similar to the Arctic willow (''

Salix arctica ''Salix arctica'', the Arctic willow, is a tiny creeping willow (family Salicaceae). It is adapted to survive in Arctic conditions, specifically tundras. Description ''S. arctica'' is typically a low shrub growing to only in height, rarely to ...

'').

Life Cycle

Female adult butterflies lay their eggs individually on snow willow stems and leaves around the middle of July and they don't hatch until numerous weeks later.Scott, James A. (1984) The Life History and Ecology of an alpine relict, ''Boloria improba acrocnema'' (Lepidoptera: Nymphalidae), illustrating a new mathematical population census method. ''Papilio (2).'' The eggs are tan in color and once hatched, the larvae will then feed on snow willow leaves throughout their biennial life cycle and overwinter under the snow until they emerge the following spring and molt. The adult butterflies are small with a fuzzy, dark brown to black body and brown-black antennae. The males and females are differentiated by the females wings being slightly lighter in color than the males.Gall, L.F. 1983. Uncompahgre fritillary butterfly. Pages 477—479 in The IUCN Invertebrate Red Data Book. S.M. Wells, R.M. Pyle, N.M. Collins, eds. International Union for Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources, Gland, Switzerland. 632 pp. Their wingspan is approximately 1 inch wide and their wings are multi-colored containing distinct patterns of tan, orange, brown, and black with a distinct triangular shape emerging on the dorsal and ventral wing. As adult butterflies, the Uncompahgre fritillaries are only in flight for a few weeks during the summer season, emerging following the snow melt at these high elevation mountain peak. They can be seen on wing starting in late-June to early-July and are considered weak fliers that require full sunlight with little to no wind in order to fly and are considered a

philopatric Philopatry is the tendency of an organism to stay in or habitually return to a particular area. The causes of philopatry are numerous, but natal philopatry, where animals return to their birthplace to breed, may be the most common. The term derives ...

species.

Management

Population decline

Mark-recapture methods completed within a decade of their discovery showed low population estimates at

and

. The Uncompahgre fritillary was thought to be on the edge of extinction and was added to the

Endangered Species List On 29 January 2010, the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species identified 5220 (2754 animals, 1 fungus, 2464 plant, 1 protist) endangered species, subspecies and varieties, stocks and sub-populations. For IUCN lists of endangered species by kingdom, ...

in 1991. Since then, early monitoring programs have found a number of additional populations in the

but the small numbers detected at each of these locations remain inadequate for delisting. Predicted threats to this species and alpine tundra ecosystems include:

grazing In agriculture, grazing is a method of animal husbandry whereby domestic livestock are allowed outdoors to roam around and consume wild vegetations in order to convert the otherwise indigestible (by human gut) cellulose within grass and other ...

, illegal collection, recreation, and

climate change In common usage, climate change describes global warming—the ongoing increase in global average temperature—and its effects on Earth's climate system. Climate change in a broader sense also includes previous long-term changes to E ...

, with an additional threat is the possibility of low

genetic variability Genetic variability is either the presence of, or the generation of, genetic differences. It is defined as "the formation of individuals differing in genotype, or the presence of genotypically different individuals, in contrast to environmentally i ...

between the known butterfly populations. The impacts of global

pose concerns to this species and alpine environments overall. Alpine environments are the coldest locations where

pollinator A pollinator is an animal that moves pollen from the male anther of a flower to the female stigma of a flower. This helps to bring about fertilization of the ovules in the flower by the male gametes from the pollen grains. Insects are the maj ...

species can still occur but the sensitive species of plants, insects, and animals found within these ecosystems might not have the ability to adapt to changes in

temperature Temperature is a physical quantity that expresses quantitatively the perceptions of hotness and coldness. Temperature is measured with a thermometer. Thermometers are calibrated in various temperature scales that historically have relied o ...

s and

precipitation In meteorology, precipitation is any product of the condensation of atmospheric water vapor that falls under gravitational pull from clouds. The main forms of precipitation include drizzle, rain, sleet, snow, ice pellets, graupel and hail. ...

patterns.

Recovery efforts

The Uncompahgre fritillary butterfly is still listed as Federally Endangered by the

U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service The United States Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS or FWS) is an agency within the United States Department of the Interior dedicated to the management of fish, wildlife, and natural habitats. The mission of the agency is "working with oth ...

and the recovery plan prioritizes actions to better understand the reasons for their low population estimates and to prevent this species from extinction. Their public locations at

and

are monitored annually by the

Bureau of Land Management The Bureau of Land Management (BLM) is an agency within the United States Department of the Interior responsible for administering federal lands. Headquartered in Washington DC, and with oversight over , it governs one eighth of the country's la ...

U.S. Forest Service The United States Forest Service (USFS) is an agency of the U.S. Department of Agriculture that administers the nation's 154 national forests and 20 national grasslands. The Forest Service manages of land. Major divisions of the agency in ...

, and

Colorado Parks and Wildlife Colorado Parks and Wildlife manages the state parks system and the wildlife of the U.S. state of Colorado. , the division managed the 42 state parks and 307 wildlife areas of Colorado. , the Colorado Natural Areas Program had 93 designated si ...

to estimate changes in population sizes, as well as to understand more about this species' habitat. Management efforts carried out by these agencies have restricted

livestock on these particular slopes, rerouted hiking trails, and installed signage regarding the status of this species at the trailheads of these popular hiking locations. The specialist habitat requirements and small distribution of the Uncompahgre fritillary butterfly make it a useful indicator of the future impacts of

could have on alpine ecosystem health and structure.Seidl, A. L. 1999. Population demographics and the conservation status of the Uncompahgre fritillary ''Boloria acrocnema'' (Nymphalidae). Journal of the Lepidopterists’ Society 53:32-36. Efforts to preserve this species continue to prevent illegal collection and monitor population numbers, habitat quality, and environmental pressures that future populations could encounter.

References

{{Taxonbar, from=Q4847824 Insects of the United States Butterflies of North America acrocnema Butterflies described in 1980 Taxonomy articles created by Polbot ESA endangered species