The Ecology of Spring Mountains Endemic Butterflies

Join Friends for our September Wild Speaker Series, “The Ecology of Spring Mountains Endemic Butterflies” at REI Boca Park. Dr. Daniel Thompson will be our presenter as we learn about the Amargosa River and what conservationists are doing to save this habitat. Three relatively rare butterflies endemic (found nowhere else) to the Spring Mountains of southern Nevada, the Mount Charleston blue butterfly, Spring Mountains dark blue butterfly, and Morand's checkerspot, occupy the ridges and slopes of the Spring Mountains above 9000 feet. Ongoing ecological studies of adult butterflies and caterpillars will be discussed with respect to insights on the specialized life cycles of each species, their use of different host plants, strategies for overwintering, the interactions of caterpillars and ants, and the implications of this research for butterfly conservation.  This will be an educational presentation you will not want to miss!

Dr. Thompson's research addresses a variety of topics in ecology and evolution including: evolution of phenotypic plasticity and morphology of grasshoppers, spatial ecology of desert shrubs and rodents, quantitative analysis of bighorn sheep behavior, and molecular evolution of gene families. He also works closely with the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service and the U.S. Forest Service to research the rare butterflies found only in the Spring Mountains just outside of Las Vegas.

We will see you there!