'Curiously isolated' butterfly species discovered in Waterton Lakes National Park
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Calgary New
They're found exclusively in a small area and have an odd relationship with ants
Tucked away in Waterton Lakes National Park, little greyish brown butterflies — long thought to be just another population of the half-moon hairstreak butterflies — are now being recognized as their own species known as Satyrium curiosolus, or the curiously isolated hairstreak.
The pollinator lives exclusively across approximately 300 hectares of the prairie-grassland landscape of the Blakiston Fan, the park's largest alluvial fan — flat areas where flowing mountain streams have deposited sediment.
And its territory is located more than 450 kilometres away from any of its relative populations in British Columbia or Montana, according to the Wilder Institute/Calgary Zoo, a partner in the study.
Zachary MacDonald, co-first author alongside Julian Dupuis of a new study published in the biodiversity research journal ZooKeys, said the new species is an exciting discovery, but what comes next is even more so.
"This is just the tip of the iceberg," said MacDonald, La Kretz and NSERC postdoctoral fellow at the University of California. "I think what's most interesting to us is what do we do about the conservation of this highly endangered species now?"
Using genomic tools, the researchers assembled the entire DNA sequence of the individual insects collected from Blakiston Fan.
The resulting sets of genomes — along with ecological evidence — were used to determine the curiously isolated hairstreak was both genetically and ecologically removed from its closest relatives up to 40,000 years ago.
James Glasier, a conservation population ecologist and co-author of the study, said that when the Wilder Institute and Parks Canada began looking at this butterfly population, they didn't go into it expecting to discover a new species.
"When we kind of went through those five years doing all the research, we found out that it has a lot more unique traits than we thought," he said. "And so it's great. It makes it an endemic, unique species to Alberta and Canada."
Meet the curious new species
Named quite literally for its curiosity-provoking isolation in the Blakiston Fan, MacDonald said the curiously isolated hairstreak's genome indicates it has always been small with a wingspan of an inch to an inch and a half (2.5 to 4 centimetres).
While other hairstreak populations have gone up and down in size over time (due to factors like the last ice age), the newly recognized butterfly "basically flatlined through time, and so it's been very small and very isolated for tens of thousands of years," he explained.
On the outside, the new species looks much like its closest relative, the half-moon hairstreak. But unlike the half-moon hairstreak, which thrives in sagebrush steppe, the newly identified species relies on silvery lupine as its host plant to develop larvae and for caterpillars to feed on.
They also have an interesting mutual relationship with a particular species of ant ( Lasius ponderosae). The curiously isolated hairstreak caterpillars excrete a sugary substance called honeydew for the ants to eat, while the ants protect the caterpillars from parasites and predators.
When disturbed or when the temperature is too hot, the caterpillars retreat into ant galleries, according to the study. Adult females have been seen laying their eggs near the entrances of ant colonies, right under the silvery lupine plant.
How genomics is reshaping taxonomy
MacDonald said the study's use of genomics — the study of an organism's genome — allowed the researchers to answer questions they couldn't quite get at before.
With a small effective population of about 500 individuals, the insect's genomic analysis revealed extremely low genetic diversity and exceptionally high levels of historic inbreeding, according to the study.
"You would assume that inbreeding depression is going to drive this thing to extinction," MacDonald said. "But this population has been very small for a very long time, and slow inbreeding has basically allowed it to get rid of its bad genes."
Arthur Shapiro, an entomologist and professor emeritus of evolution and ecology at the University of California, who was not involved in the study, said the research is "one more case where the genetics tells the story more dramatically than the morphology." He said this bolsters scientists' conviction that "there is more going on out there than may be superficially evident."
"Decisions about species status used to be predicated almost entirely on morphology," he explained in an email. "Nowadays, genomics is of equal, if not overriding, importance."
Conserving the endangered butterflies
Glasier said the population's low genetic diversity poses a major concern for conserving the endangered species as it limits the butterfly's capacity to adapt to environmental change — especially the consequences of a warming climate like increased wildfires.
He said the Wilder Institute, in partnership with Parks Canada, is already monitoring the population to see how it responds to changing conditions.
Another challenge they're trying to tackle is invasive spotted knapweed, which threatens the quality of the butterflies' habitat in the Blakiston Fan.
In the longer term, Glasier said the organizations are potentially looking at captive rearing. That means bringing some butterflies under human care and releasing them back into either their natural habitat or finding them another home within the park to start up a secondary population.
"We have found a few places where we expect them to potentially survive, and so we're looking at potentially, in the future, releasing them there to spread the population out and allow for them to kind of expand a bit so that there's backup populations in the future," he said.
Glasier said the challenge to conserve the curiously isolated hairstreaks is "definitely a puzzle" as they work on finding the best ways to protect the endangered species, but he feels optimistic about a "positive outcome."
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"I think one of the interesting parts is just how much people wanted to talk about crows for no reward at all," said Adams. Vancouver has even had its own celebrity crow, named Canuck, that was well known for riding the SkyTrain, stealing a knife from a crime scene in 2016, and forging an unlikely friendship with a mail carrier. Adams said the survey found 53 per cent of people felt crows were a symbol of Vancouver. Wildlife photographer Liron Gertsman has been fascinated with crows since he was five, and that obsession turned into a documentary, filmed with friend Jack Bailey. Their 10-minute production, "The Commute," captures the story of a massive murder of crows — up to 10,000 birds strong — that congregates at Still Creek in Burnaby at night. The huge flock is a familiar sight in Metro Vancouver skies, particularly in winter months. Gertsman called it an "incredible phenomenon." 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The Wildlife Rescue Association said nesting season lasts from April to July, meaning "anxious bird parents are out in full force" to protect their young. The association said it's seeing a spike in reports of fledgling crows on the ground, and there are 11 injured and orphaned crows in Wildlife Rescue's care. The organization's co-executive director, Linda Bakker, said it's common to find young crows on the ground in late spring as they learn to fly. Not all need help, but if a grounded bird looks like it's in trouble, people should can take a photo and contact Wildlife Rescue, she said. She said the group often gets calls from people asking how to deal with crow attacks. But she said that when it happened to her, she wasn't worried. "I was excited when it happened. I was like, oh, there's a crow, and he's protecting his nest. That's great. I will stay out of your way," said Bakker. 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Dive-bombed or not, Vancouverites are still pro-crow, researchers say
VANCOUVER – Along her journey towards understanding Vancouver's crows, psychology professor Suzanne MacDonald says she made a friend. It's a crow that brings her gifts after she set up a bird feeder at her home in the neighbourhood of Kitsilano. Once, it was a barnacle-covered shell, which MacDonald treasures. Other times, it was 'bits of garbage' that MacDonald doesn't fancy much, though she 'appreciates the sentiment.' 'I think he definitely recognizes me. When other people go out on my patio, he doesn't come to them. He knows me,' said MacDonald. Vancouver has long had a love-hate relationship with its crows, whose dive-bombing attacks on pedestrians are a sure sign of springtime in the city. But a new survey co-authored by MacDonald suggests that, on the human side at least, it's mostly love. 'I think that many people feel a deep connection to crows because they seem to see the world the way humans do: they are intelligent, excellent problem solvers, they recognize individual humans, and they are highly social, culturally complex beings,' said MacDonald, a psychology professor at York University, who divides her time between Toronto and Vancouver. MacDonald and Laura Adams, who teaches psychology at Langara College, teamed up to survey hundreds of people in B.C.'s Lower Mainland to examine their relationship with crows. They said 67 per cent of people had positive feelings about crows, compared to only five per cent with negative feelings, in findings released this month that the researchers hope will inform an academic publication later. As for the crows, many make their feelings known during the spring nesting season, when the Wildlife Rescue Association of B.C. says 'overprotective' parent birds swoop on anyone who gets too close to a nest. It's a common experience across Vancouver — an online crowdsourced map of crow attacks in Vancouver is dotted with red crow symbols marking swooping sites gathered over several years. But Adams said most people felt 'very positive' about crows, even if they had been dive-bombed. 'We were really hoping to compare the types of people who loved crows and the types of people who had very negative opinions on crows because talking to the general public, people seem to be in both camps,' said Adams. But it turns out most respondents were crow fans. 'We found that 64 per cent of people said that they'd been dive-bombed by a crow. So, when you put that in the context of 67 per cent of people feeling very positive about crows, that means there are a lot of people who've been dive-bombed but still love crows,' said Adams, 'We found that really interesting.' Many of the 468 survey respondents shared stories about their unique relationships with the birds. 'I think one of the interesting parts is just how much people wanted to talk about crows for no reward at all,' said Adams. Vancouver has even had its own celebrity crow, named Canuck, that was well known for riding the SkyTrain, stealing a knife from a crime scene in 2016, and forging an unlikely friendship with a mail carrier. Adams said the survey found 53 per cent of people felt crows were a symbol of Vancouver. Wildlife photographer Liron Gertsman has been fascinated with crows since he was five, and that obsession turned into a documentary, filmed with friend Jack Bailey. Their 10-minute production, 'The Commute,' captures the story of a massive murder of crows — up to 10,000 birds strong — that congregates at Still Creek in Burnaby at night. The huge flock is a familiar sight in Metro Vancouver skies, particularly in winter months. Gertsman called it an 'incredible phenomenon.' 'They're just so smart,' he said, as he described the challenge of locating the birds, only to turn up for more filming and 'they'd be nowhere to be seen.' 'So, they were playing games with us a little bit. They were taking us on a not a wild-goose chase, but a wild-crow chase around the city,' he said. Gertsman said that during filming he and Bailey were pooped on 'all the time,' but it didn't dampen their enthusiasm for their subjects and their 'beautiful daily commute.' He's still watching crows during the current nesting season. 'There's a crow nest that is just barely visible outside my window, tucked into the tree, which is fun to watch,' Gertsman said. 'I think it's a lovely thing to be able to look outside your window in the morning and see a crow because it represents that little bit of nature that is able to exist within even a pretty big city.' The Wildlife Rescue Association said nesting season lasts from April to July, meaning 'anxious bird parents are out in full force' to protect their young. The association said it's seeing a spike in reports of fledgling crows on the ground, and there are 11 injured and orphaned crows in Wildlife Rescue's care. The organization's co-executive director, Linda Bakker, said it's common to find young crows on the ground in late spring as they learn to fly. Not all need help, but if a grounded bird looks like it's in trouble, people should can take a photo and contact Wildlife Rescue, she said. She said the group often gets calls from people asking how to deal with crow attacks. But she said that when it happened to her, she wasn't worried. 'I was excited when it happened. I was like, oh, there's a crow, and he's protecting his nest. That's great. I will stay out of your way,' said Bakker. Wednesdays A weekly look towards a post-pandemic future. MacDonald said it's important for people to understand how we live with other species, particularly in an urban environment where many animals have been pushed out. 'But some of them, like crows, actually thrive with us, and that makes them very special,' she said. MacDonald says daily encounters with crows should be seen as a reminder that 'if we live in a city that has no wildlife, then we live in a dead city.' 'We want to live in a very vibrant city where nature is at our front door and our back door and everywhere, and crows remind us that is the case in the Lower Mainland.' This report by The Canadian Press was first published on May 30, 2025.
CBC
25-04-2025
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'Curiously isolated' butterfly species discovered in Waterton Lakes National Park
We use trackers to collect some of your data in order to enhance your experience through personalized content and advertising. If you wish to limit online tracking on our platforms, please review your device and browser privacy settings before continuing your visit. Calgary New They're found exclusively in a small area and have an odd relationship with ants Tucked away in Waterton Lakes National Park, little greyish brown butterflies — long thought to be just another population of the half-moon hairstreak butterflies — are now being recognized as their own species known as Satyrium curiosolus, or the curiously isolated hairstreak. The pollinator lives exclusively across approximately 300 hectares of the prairie-grassland landscape of the Blakiston Fan, the park's largest alluvial fan — flat areas where flowing mountain streams have deposited sediment. And its territory is located more than 450 kilometres away from any of its relative populations in British Columbia or Montana, according to the Wilder Institute/Calgary Zoo, a partner in the study. Zachary MacDonald, co-first author alongside Julian Dupuis of a new study published in the biodiversity research journal ZooKeys, said the new species is an exciting discovery, but what comes next is even more so. "This is just the tip of the iceberg," said MacDonald, La Kretz and NSERC postdoctoral fellow at the University of California. "I think what's most interesting to us is what do we do about the conservation of this highly endangered species now?" Using genomic tools, the researchers assembled the entire DNA sequence of the individual insects collected from Blakiston Fan. The resulting sets of genomes — along with ecological evidence — were used to determine the curiously isolated hairstreak was both genetically and ecologically removed from its closest relatives up to 40,000 years ago. James Glasier, a conservation population ecologist and co-author of the study, said that when the Wilder Institute and Parks Canada began looking at this butterfly population, they didn't go into it expecting to discover a new species. "When we kind of went through those five years doing all the research, we found out that it has a lot more unique traits than we thought," he said. "And so it's great. It makes it an endemic, unique species to Alberta and Canada." Meet the curious new species Named quite literally for its curiosity-provoking isolation in the Blakiston Fan, MacDonald said the curiously isolated hairstreak's genome indicates it has always been small with a wingspan of an inch to an inch and a half (2.5 to 4 centimetres). While other hairstreak populations have gone up and down in size over time (due to factors like the last ice age), the newly recognized butterfly "basically flatlined through time, and so it's been very small and very isolated for tens of thousands of years," he explained. On the outside, the new species looks much like its closest relative, the half-moon hairstreak. But unlike the half-moon hairstreak, which thrives in sagebrush steppe, the newly identified species relies on silvery lupine as its host plant to develop larvae and for caterpillars to feed on. They also have an interesting mutual relationship with a particular species of ant ( Lasius ponderosae). The curiously isolated hairstreak caterpillars excrete a sugary substance called honeydew for the ants to eat, while the ants protect the caterpillars from parasites and predators. When disturbed or when the temperature is too hot, the caterpillars retreat into ant galleries, according to the study. Adult females have been seen laying their eggs near the entrances of ant colonies, right under the silvery lupine plant. How genomics is reshaping taxonomy MacDonald said the study's use of genomics — the study of an organism's genome — allowed the researchers to answer questions they couldn't quite get at before. With a small effective population of about 500 individuals, the insect's genomic analysis revealed extremely low genetic diversity and exceptionally high levels of historic inbreeding, according to the study. "You would assume that inbreeding depression is going to drive this thing to extinction," MacDonald said. "But this population has been very small for a very long time, and slow inbreeding has basically allowed it to get rid of its bad genes." Arthur Shapiro, an entomologist and professor emeritus of evolution and ecology at the University of California, who was not involved in the study, said the research is "one more case where the genetics tells the story more dramatically than the morphology." He said this bolsters scientists' conviction that "there is more going on out there than may be superficially evident." "Decisions about species status used to be predicated almost entirely on morphology," he explained in an email. "Nowadays, genomics is of equal, if not overriding, importance." Conserving the endangered butterflies Glasier said the population's low genetic diversity poses a major concern for conserving the endangered species as it limits the butterfly's capacity to adapt to environmental change — especially the consequences of a warming climate like increased wildfires. He said the Wilder Institute, in partnership with Parks Canada, is already monitoring the population to see how it responds to changing conditions. Another challenge they're trying to tackle is invasive spotted knapweed, which threatens the quality of the butterflies' habitat in the Blakiston Fan. In the longer term, Glasier said the organizations are potentially looking at captive rearing. That means bringing some butterflies under human care and releasing them back into either their natural habitat or finding them another home within the park to start up a secondary population. "We have found a few places where we expect them to potentially survive, and so we're looking at potentially, in the future, releasing them there to spread the population out and allow for them to kind of expand a bit so that there's backup populations in the future," he said. Glasier said the challenge to conserve the curiously isolated hairstreaks is "definitely a puzzle" as they work on finding the best ways to protect the endangered species, but he feels optimistic about a "positive outcome."
