The New Mexico Rare Arthropod Resource

Little is known about the habitats and ecology of this species. It is known only from grasslands and shrublands in the northern Chihuahuan Desert. At White Sands National Monument, it has been collected from interdune vegetation and at the sides of dunes and at Carlsbad Caverns National Park, it has been found in grasslands and basin bushland habitats (Metzler and Forbes 2012). Cochylini tribe moths are internal feeders as larvae and are usually associated with Asteraceae host plants (Powell and Opler 2009). The larva and host plant of this species are unknown (Metzler and Forbes 2012). This species has been collected as an adult in both March and June (Metzler and Forbes 2012).

This moth is endemic to the northern Chihuahuan Desert, where it has been recorded in Eddy and Otero Counties, New Mexico and Hudspeth County, Texas, in the United States. Most known occurrences are from White Sands and Carlsbad Caverns National Parks (Metzler and Forbes 2012).

No conservation measures are in place specifically for this species. This species occurs in White Sands National Park, which is the world’s largest white gypsum sand field and is completely protected from resource extraction and development (Metzler et al. 2009). The neighboring dune area is managed by the DOD White Sands Missile Range, so the degree of disturbance affecting this moth’s habitat there is unknown. This species also occurs in the protected Carlsbad Caverns National Park (Metzler and Forbes 2012). Habitat protection, however, will not mitigate against the main threats to this species. This species is poorly understood. Research on distribution, population size and trend, habitat and ecology, and threats is needed.

This species is endemic to the northern Chihuahuan Desert, where it is known primarily from White Sands National Park and Carlsbad Caverns National Park. While the threats are not well understood, some inferences can be made about the threats at each locality.

The White Sands dune field is an ecosystem at risk of instability due to extensive groundwater extraction on the eastern edge of the Tularosa Basin. Hydrologic modeling has shown that increased groundwater pumping in response to increased temperatures and drought conditions will lead to water level decreases up to 1.5 meters. The dune field only exists as a permanent landscape feature because the gypsum sands are held in place at the base by water weight wicked up from the ground, so a decrease in water resources could result in increased sand motility, and therefore instability of the interdune habitats where herbivorous insects live (Bourret 2015).

Groundwater extraction is more heavily utilized in periods of drought and increased temperatures. The Southwestern U.S. saw its driest 22-year period from 2000 to 2021, since at least 800 CE (the time period used in previous climatic reconstructions) (Williams et al. 2022). Droughts are projected to become more prolonged, severe, and common in the region under future climate change scenarios (USGCRP 2018). In addition to increased groundwater use, drought may impact the species in other ways. Drought has been shown to advanced timing to adulthood has been observed in some butterfly species, which may lead to phenological mismatch with plant resources (Forister et al. 2018) and drought may adversely impact larval host plants and nectar sources (Pettorelli et al. 2007, Gottfried et al. 2012). In addition, endemic species are on average at three times higher risk of extinction from threat of climate change than other native species (Manes et al. 2021)

Carlsbad Caverns occurs in proximity to one of the country’s most active oil and gas fields; the Permian Basin alone had over 350 operating oil rigs as of December 2022 (The Coalition to Protect America’s National Parks, 2023). The most significant impact this has on the Park is reduced air quality. In Carlsbad specifically, ozone exceeded 70 parts per billion on 73 days of the year 2020 (Hedden 2021). Ozone has been shown to significantly impact flower visitation by many pollinating insects, including moths (Ryalls et al. 2022).

This species may also be impacted by invasive species. Chihuahuan Desert grasslands in general have been invaded by several notable non-native grass species, especially buffelgrass (Cenchrus ciliaris), fountaingrass (C. setaceus), Lehmann’s lovegrass (Eragrostis lehmanniana), and African lovegrass (E. echinochloidea), many of which were planted for use by livestock. Lehmann’s lovegrass is the most common exotic species within Carlsbad Caverns, and frequently forms dense monocultures (Reiser et al. 2011). Invasion by these grasses has been shown to negatively affect the local invertebrate communities; in one study, for every 100 g/m² of E. lehmanniana, a 21% decrease in Lepidoptera and a 14% decrease in overall insect abundance was observed (Litt and Steidl 2010). This loss in biodiversity and abundance may partly be due to the crowding out of native plants required by these herbivores. Nonnative grasses can compete with native species for resources and reduce establishment success of native seedlings (Morales-Romero and Molina-Freaner 2008, Sommers et al. 2022). White Sands in particular, is threatened by saltcedar (Tamarix spp.), which creeps into the interdune areas where the water table is high and outcompetes native plants while increasing soil salinity (Hager 1998).

The population size and trend are not known for this species.

• Catalogue of Life. 2023. Catalogue of Life. 2023. https://www.catalogueoflife.org/
• Hedden, A.. 2021. Ozone pollution at Carlsbad Caverns comes from oil and gas. State readies emissions rules. Carlsbad Current-Argus , Carlsbad, New Mexico .
• Bourret, S.M.. 2015. Stabilization of the White Sands gypsum dune field, New Mexico, by groundwater seepage: a hydrological modeling study.. New Mexico Institute of Mining and Technology, Socorro, New Mexico .
• Reiser, M.H., McIntyre, C.L. and Powell, M.A.. 2011. Exotic plant monitoring in the Chihuahuan Desert network. Chihuahuan Desert Inventory & Monitoring Network, Las Cruces, New Mexico .
• Ryalls, J.M.W., Langford, B., Mullinger, N.J., Bromfield, L.M., Nemitz, E., Pfrang, C. and Girling, R.D.. 2022. Anthropogenic air pollutants reduce insect-mediated pollination services. Environmental Air Pollution 297.
• The Coalition to Protect America’s National Parks. 2023. Actions needed to protect National Parks from oil and gas development. The Coalition to Protect America’s National Parks, Washington, D.C. .
• Hager, S.B.. 1998. The thermoregulatory and reproductive behavior of the lesser earless lizard, Holbrookia maculata, at White Sands National Monument, New Mexico. New Mexico State University, Las Cruces, New Mexico .
• GBIF.org. 2024. GBIF Occurrence Download. 2024. https://doi.org/10.15468/dl.yn9t6t
• Gottfried, M., Pauli, H., Futschik, A., et al. 2012. Continent-wide response of mountain vegetation to climate change. Nature Climate Change 2: (111-115).
• Metzler, E., Bustos, D. and Forbes, G.. 2009. The Lepidoptera of White Sands National Monument, Otero County, New Mexico, USA 1. Two new species of Noctuidae (Lepidoptera, Noctuinae, Agrotini). Zookeys 9: (47-62).
• Metzler, E.H.. 2021. The remarkable endemism of moths in White Sands National Park. News of the Lepidopterists’ Society 63: (156-162).
• Powell, J.A. and Opler, P.A.. 2009. Moths of Western North America. University of California Press, Berkeley, CA .
• Metzler, E.H. and Forbes, G.H.. 2012. The Lepidoptera of White Sands National Monument 5: Two new species of Cochylini (Lepidoptera, Tortricidae, Tortricinae). Zootaxa 3444: (51–60).
• Forister, M.L., Fordyce, J.A., Nice, C.C., Thorne, J.H., Waetjen, D.P. and Shapiro, A.M.. 2018. Impacts of a millennium drought on butterfly faunal dynamics. Climate Change Responses 5: (9-Jan).
• Sommers, P., Davis, A. and Chesson, P.. 2022. Invasive buffel grass (Cenchrus ciliaris) increases water stress and reduces success of native perennial seedlings in southeastern Arizona. Biological Invasions 24: (1809-1826).
• Morales-Romero, D. and Molina-Freaner, F.. 2008. Influence of buffelgrass pasture conversion on the regeneration and reproduction of the columnar cactus, Pachycereus pecten-aboriginum, in northwestern Mexico. Journal of Arid Environments 72: (228-237).
• Litt, A.R. and Steidl, R.J.. 2010. Insect assemblages change along a gradient of invasion by a nonnative grass. Biological Invasions 12: (3449-2463).
• Williams, A.P., Cook, B.I. and Smerdon, J.E. . 2022. Rapid intensification of the emerging southwestern North American megadrought in 2020–2021. Nature Climate Change 12: (232-234).
• Pettorelli, N., Pelletier, F., von Hardenberg, A., Festa-Bianchet, M. and Côté S.D. 2007. Early onset of vegetation growth vs rapid green-up: impacts on juvenile mountain ungulates. Ecology 88: (381-390).
• Manes, S., Costello, M.J., Beckett, H., Debnath, A., Devenish-Nelson, E., Grey, K.-A., Jenkins, R., Khan, T.M., Kiessling, W., Krause, C., Maharaj, S.S., Midgley, G.F., Price, J., Talukdar, G. and Vale, M.M. . 2021. Endemism increases species’ climate change risk in areas of global biodiversity importance. Biological Conservation 257.
• USGCRP. 2018. Impacts, Risks, and Adaptation in the United States: Fourth National Climate Assessment, Volume II. U.S. Global Change Research Program , Washington, DC, USA : (1515).