The Xerces Society Announces the 2007 Joan Mosenthal DeWind Award Winners.

The Xerces Society is pleased to announce the recipients of the 2007 Joan Mosenthal DeWind Award for Lepidoptera Research and Conservation:

Indirect Effects of an invasive gall wasp on a native butterfly, a possible mechanism for population declines in a threatened butterfly species
Kirsten M. Prior, PhD Graduate Student - Department of Biological Sciences, University of Notre Dame

Garry oak ecosystems are hotspots of butterfly and plant diversity in North America. They are under immediate threat, especially at the edge of their range, due to habitat loss and degradation as a direct result of changes in land-use. Population extinctions and declines of a native threatened butterfly species have been observed in locales that are surrounded by an urban matrix, which have outbreaks of a high-impact oak-galling invader. The importance of indirect interactions between these two species mediated by changes in resource quality will be examined to uncover a possible mechanism for population extinctions of this butterfly. As more locales in this region face the threat of urban encroachment, understanding the causes of population extinctions and declines of species in these changing ecosystems becomes increasingly important.

Responses of Butterfly Abundance and Species Richness to Mechanical Treatments of A Sagebrush Ecosystem in the Upper Gunnison Basin of Colorado
Tyler L. Hicks, Undergraduate Student – Department of Natural and Environmental Sciences, Western State College of Colorado

Native sagebrush-steppe ecosystems in North America are rapidly declining due to degradation, fragmentation, and destruction. The lack of natural disturbance and overgrazing has reduced the productivity of these shrublands. Mechanical treatments of sagebrush are being undertaken to increase its productivity. However, the affects of these treatments on sagebrush invertebrate communities is poorly understood. By utilizing butterflies we can monitor how an important component of all ecosystems, invertebrates, responds to these treatments. Here we will determine the effects of two types of mechanical treatment, Dixie harrow and brush mowing, on butterfly abundance and species richness within the sagebrush-steppe ecosystems of the Upper Gunnison Basin.