The Xerces Society Announces the 2008 Joan Mosenthal DeWind Award Winners.

The Xerces Society is pleased to announce the recipients of the 2008 Joan Mosenthal DeWind Award for Lepidoptera Research and Conservation:

Linking Local Behavior and Range-Wide Movement to Conserve a Rare Butterfly in an Urbanized Landscape
Allison K. Leidner, PhD candidate - Department of Zoology, North Carolina State University

Habitat loss and fragmentation by urban development pose severe threats to species viability. This research focuses on a newly identified Atrytonopsis species which uses heavily fragmented sand dune habitat along a 30-mile stretch of North Carolina’s barrier islands. Combining local behavioral studies with range-wide analyses of population structure this study will determine the effects of habitat fragmentation and urbanization on the movement of Atrytonopsis. Ultimately, this information can identify features in the landscape that promote movement, and be used to generate conservation strategies that will help maintain the long-term persistence of Atrytonopsis.

Climate Change as a Threat to Geometrid Moths Along an Altitudinal Gradient In the North Eastern Andes of Ecuador
Genoveva R. Castañeda, PhD candidate - Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Tulane University

Climate change is predicted to change species’ distributions, potentially decoupling interactions among species, with related consequences for entire communities.  Ecological models and empirical data predict that these impacts will be more severe for montane species, as these species have upper limits to potential range expansion in response to warmer temperatures.  This study will experimentally extend the altitudinal range of ants, the dominant predators of Eios geometrid caterpillars in the Andean mountains of Ecuador, in order to investigate the impacts that increases in global temperatures will have on ant-plant mutualisms and distributions of Lepidoptera.

Rising Treeline and Shifting Host-Plan Dynamics: Implications for a Monophagous Alpine Butterfly
Kurt Illerbrun, Graduate Student - Department of Biological Sciences, University of Alberta

Climate mediated treeline rise reduces the size and contiguity of alpine meadows worldwide, altering the ecology of alpine flora and fauna. On Jumpingpound Ridge in Alberta, Canada, treeline may be a major determinant of distribution and abundance for Sedum lanceolatum, host plant of the Apollo butterfly Parnassius smintheus, whose larvae are monophagous. This research will examine the effects of advancing treeline and herbivory on Sedum distribution and dynamics, and relate these effects to the observed responses in movement and herbivory pattern of Parnassius larvae. Knowledge of fine-scale resource usage by larvae will aid in understanding and predicting butterfly responses to habitat change in similar environments, with direct relevance to endangered lepidoptera.