Hostname: page-component-7c8c6479df-xxrs7 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-03-28T11:53:46.964Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

History of the northern silvery blue (Glaucopsyche lygdamus couperi) (Lepidoptera: Lycaenidae) in southern Ontario, Canada: separating range expansion from original populations and other subspecies

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  16 May 2014

Ross A. Layberry
Affiliation:
6124 Carp Road, Kinburn, Ontario, Canada K0A 2H0
Paul M. Catling
Affiliation:
Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada, Environmental Health, Biodiversity, Saunders Bldg., C.E.F., Ottawa, Ontario, Canada K1A 0C6
B. Christian Schmidt*
Affiliation:
Canadian Food Inspection Agency, Canadian National Collection of Insects, Arachnids and Nematodes, K.W. Neatby Bldg., 960 Carling Ave., Ottawa, Ontario, Canada K1A 0C6
*
1Corresponding author (e-mail: chris.schmidt@inspection.gc.ca).

Abstract

The historical distribution of Glaucopsyche lygdamus (Doubleday) (Lepidoptera: Lycaenidae) in southern Ontario, Canada was analysed using three major databases. In southern Ontario, G. lygdamus includes (1) subspecies G. lygdamus couperi Grote that has expanded its range from the north since the 1940s and 1950s reaching Hamilton, Ontario, Canada in 2012; (2) a non-expanding population on the Norfolk Sand Plain, Ontario, Canada that appears phenotypically closest to G. lygdamus couperi, but with some wing marking characters that are transitional to the more southern subspecies G. lygdamus lygdamus; and (3) rare and local pre-expansion populations referable to G. lygdamus couperi that occurred in the Ottawa Valley and Bruce Peninsula, Ontario, Canada in alvar woodlands, and possibly also on lakeshore dunes. The very rare and local occurrences of silvery blue in southern Ontario in the past is in direct contrast to its increasing abundance in the area in present times, but the genetic and phenotypic diversity of silvery blue may be declining due to genetic mixing with and/or to the effect of increasing parasitoids from the expanding race.

Type
Biodiversity & Evolution
Copyright
© Entomological Society of Canada 2014 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Footnotes

Subject editor: Keith Summerville

References

Ball, P.W. 1981. Hill’s Oak (Quercus ellipsoidalis) in southern Ontario. Canadian Field-Naturalist, 95: 281286.Google Scholar
Bethune, C.J.S. 1894. The butterflies of the eastern provinces of Canada. Twenty-Fifth Annual Report of the Entomological Society of Ontario, 1894: 2944.Google Scholar
Bower, H.M. 1911. Early stages of Lycaena lygdamus Doubleday (Lepid.). Entomological News, 22: 359363.Google Scholar
Catling, P.M. and Brownell, V.R. 1999. An overlooked locality for Karner blue (Lycaeides melissa samuelis) in Ontario. Toronto Entomologists’ Association Publication, 32-2000: 1618.Google Scholar
Catling, P.M. and Layberry, R.A. 2013. An alvar race of the silvery blue (Glaucopsyche lygdamus) in southern Ontario? Canadian Field-Naturalist, 127: 224228.Google Scholar
Chapman, I.J. and Putnam, D.F. 1984. Physiography of southern Ontario. Ontario. Geological Survey Map P.2715 (coloured) scale 1: 6000,000. University of Toronto Press, Toronto, Ontario, Canada.Google Scholar
Chermock, F.H. 1945. Some new North American Lycaenidae. The Canadian Entomologist, 76: 213217.Google Scholar
Cruise, J.E. 1969. A floristic study of Norfolk County, Ontario. Transactions of the Royal Canadian Institute, 35: 1116.Google Scholar
Dirig, R. and Cryan, J.F. 1991. The status of silvery blue subspecies (Glaucopsyche lygdamus lygdamus and G.l. couperi: Lycaenidae) in New York. Journal of the Lepidopterists’ Society, 45: 272290.Google Scholar
Dore, W.G. and McNeill, J. 1980. Grasses of Ontario. Canadian Government Publishing Service, Hull, Québec, Canada.Google Scholar
Forister, M.L., Gompert, Z., Fordyce, J.A., and Nice, C.C. 2011. After 60 years, an answer to the question: what is the Karner blue butterfly? Biology Letters, 7: 399402.Google Scholar
Kurczewski, F.E. 2000. History of white pine (Pinus strobus)/oak (Quercus spp.) savanna in southern Ontario, with particular reference to the biogeography and status of the antenna-waving wasp, Tachysphex pechumani (Hymenoptera: Sphecidae). Canadian Field-Naturalist, 114: 120.Google Scholar
Lafontaine, J.D. 1968. The butterflies of the Ottawa region. Trail and Landscape, 2: 9497.Google Scholar
Layberry, R.A., Hall, P.W., and Lafontaine, J.D. 1998. The butterflies of Canada. University of Toronto Press, Toronto, Ontario, Canada.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Layberry, R.A., Lafontaine, J.D., and Hall, P.W. 1982. Butterflies of the Ottawa district. Trail and Landscape, 16: 359.Google Scholar
Miller, L.D. and Brown, F.M. 1981. A catalogue checklist of the butterflies of America north of Mexico. The Lepidopterists’ Society Memoir, 2: 1280.Google Scholar
Muir, J. 1913. The story of my boyhood and youth. Houghton Mifflin, Boston, Massachusetts, United States of America.Google Scholar
Pavulaan, H. and Wright, D.M. 2005. Celastrina serotina (Lycaenidae: Polyommatinae): a new butterfly species from the northeastern United States and eastern Canada. The Taxonomic Report, 6: 118.Google Scholar
Pelham, J.P. 2008. A catalogue of the butterflies of the United States and Canada: with a complete bibliography of the descriptive and systematic literature. Journal of Research on the Lepidoptera, 40: 1658.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Riotte, J.C.E. 1959. Revision of C.J.S. Bethune’s list of the butterflies of the eastern provinces of Canada as far as northern Ontario is concerned. Ontario Field Biologist, 13: 118.Google Scholar
Statpoint Inc. 2005. Statgraphics Centurion 15. Statpoint Inc., Herndon, Virginia, United States of America.Google Scholar
Szeicz, J.M. and MacDonald, G.M. 1991. Postglacial vegetation history of oak savanna in southern Ontario. Canadian Journal of Botany, 69: 15071519.Google Scholar
Wood, J.D. 1961. The woodland-oak plains transition zone in the settlement of western Upper Canada. Canadian Geographer, 5: 4357.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Wormington, A. 1983. The butterflies of Point Pelee National Park, Ontario. Ontario Field Biologist, 37: 126.Google Scholar