The New Mexico Rare Arthropod Resource

Flight dates for this taxa have not been reported; however, GBIF.org records stretch from April 9th to July 28th (GBIF.org 2024). For the parent species extreme flight dates in New Mexico are April 9th to September 12th (Cary and Toliver 2024). During flight adults are often seen flying near the ground in sunny openings and often visit damp sand and nectar, especially nectar of their host plants (Opler and Wright 1999, Cary and Toliver 2024). 

Other credible threats to this subspecies include catastrophic wildfire and fire suppression (Holland 2010). Fire suppression has been a key component of forest management in the Sacramento Mountains since the early 1900s which has resulted in dense conifer growth and increased fuel loads (Kaufmann et al. 1998). At least nine large fires have burned over 34,000 acres of land in the Sacramento Mountains in the last 50 years (Kaufmann et al. 1998). These fires could easily knock out this species' host plant causing mass mortality, in adults, larvae, or eggs and easily extirpating the remaining colonies (Holland 2010). Additionally, pesticide use has also likely adversely impacted this subspecies across its known range (Holland 2010). In 1983 and 1984 during June and July when this taxa is active and overlapping with  its flight period carbaryl pesticides were sprayed using aerial application over 240,900 acres of the Sacramento Mountains at elevations between 1828 and 3353 meters (6,000 and 11,000 feet), to control an outbreak of Western Spruce Budworm (Choristoneura freemani)(Bennett and Linnea 1985). Most of the inhabited areas and waterways were instead sprayed with Bacillus thuringiensis (Bt).  In another example, in 2007, the Village of Cloudcroft again sprayed Bt var. kurstaki, which targets lepidopterans, to control a Janet Fir Looper (Nepytia janetae) outbreak (Holland 2007). 

This subspecies is also potentially threatened by inbreeding depression due to the extreme isolation of this taxa from other Margined Whites. Inbreeding depression can result in these isolated populations when slightly deleterious alleles accumulate in small populations, reducing the likelihood of population persistence (Hedrick 1994, Lynch et al. 1995). The accumulation of deleterious alleles and reduction in heterozygosity have been shown to reduce survival rates at several important life stages in butterflies, including those that have an effect on population stability and persistence, even after just one generation of mating between full-siblings (Saccheri et al. 1998, Nieminen et al. 2001). Nieminen et al. (2001) also suggests that inbreeding depression may pose an even greater problem in populations currently experiencing rapid habitat fragmentation but with minimal inbreeding in the past. A reduction in fitness resulting from the loss of genetic diversity significantly increases the risk of extinction when populations are subject to environmental stress. Saccheri et al. (1998) found that microclimatic conditions combined with inbreeding caused the extinction of a checkerspot population in Finland, while Singer and Ehrlich (1979) found a combination of drought, fragmented habitat, and low dispersal rates contributed to the extinction of several butterfly populations in California.