Endangered Insects

Nature Talk
1

I’ve been looking for some kind of government (or scientific) article listing endangered insects. I have found many articles in various news outlets but nowhere that has anything resembling a list. I have found one for my state (New Mexico) that lists out the crustaceans, mollusks, as well as migratory animals such as birds. I have also found “rare plants” listed on a different website.

But I have yet to find insects (or fungi).

Is this a case of noone having researched it (more possible) or it is unknown (less likely in my opinion).

What resources have people used, what search query terms did you use and what search engines did you use?

2

Could you clarify a little bit what you’re looking for? “Endangered” by IUCN standards is different than “Endangered” under the United State’s Endangered Species Act, and both are different than “Endangered” under my state’s (California) Endangered Species Act. That being a said, a single species might be on multiple of these lists.

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Really I’m looking for any list that I can use to springboard looking into the insects of New Mexico. My main focus really ends up being the ecology of an area and I find that there is often a lot to learn about the areas with narrowly endemic species be it plant, animal, or fungi.

An example of that is there is a single canyon that I know about in NM that has “fireflies”. One of the reasons I’m looking into insects is I have been trying to monitor the insects in my yard and the area around it.

4

“Endangered” is a specific legal status used differently by different states/countries. If you are interested in species in New Mexico, I would use this site:
https://www.bison-m.org/SuperSearch.aspx

If you filter for insects listed as endangered by the US or NM, there is only one. But there are many many other categories you can use to search for what interests you.

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5

This is exactly what I was looking for thank you.

Also I didn’t know that endangered specifically meant a legal term. I thought it was used to describe the species prevalence and general outlook.

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Other organizations like NatureServe and IUCN also use “endangered”, but it is a somewhat arbitrary designation. In the US the Endangered Species Act provides legal protections to listed species, but it takes some work to have species formally listed. Because invertebrates are so diverse and understudied, there aren’t very many formally listed as endangered, but there are still many that are “in danger” of going extinct (which you could consider endangered, but then it can get confusing).

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Yea I can see it as getting confusing there are so many niche species that die out when their niche goes away. But this is why study is needed right?

8

New Mexico only this year changed its definition of wildlife to include arthropods. An updated list for species of greatest concern is in the works.

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Do you know if it is mostly being done at the state level, or has an education institution taken front and center?
After “being out” of the wildlife field for so long I’m going a tad crazy trying to get back into it.

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UNM, the ABQ biopark, and the state as far as I know

11

The organizations @egordon88 just mentioned, and some others, recently released the New Mexico Rare Arthropods Resource website (https://nmrare.org/) which may be of interest to you. It allows you to search for arthropods occurring in NM designated as rare by various state, national, and international organizations/entities (NMDGF, IUCN, NatureServe, BLM, etc.) and access “factsheets” with basic descriptive info for these species.

I believe the website is hosted by Natural Heritage New Mexico, which is run out of UNM, but with support from other entities.

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Absolutely!

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