BRN 9-2 (uncompressed) - Flipbook - Page 87
In early 2025 I began my own search
for Argia vivida in New Mexico, which
comprises two separate projects:
collecting and identifying specimens,
and locating specimens in institutions
and private collections. Based on a
suggestion from Bill Prather, I started
collecting in San Juan County, in the
northwestern corner of the state, and
my records from there are in the
Odonata Central (OC) data base
(records 2962418Ð2962421,
2962364Ð2962368, and 2962372Ð
2962375),* where I describe habitat
and methods of identiÞcation. I did
not encounter the species at several
locations in other northern counties,
and I will resume my quest in 2026.
Searching for specimens collected by
others has been facilitated by
datasets, some relating to the Dot
Map Project; OC records; online
databases of museums like the
University of Michigan Museum of
Zoology and USNM; and records from
the Florida State Collection of
Arthropods (FSCA) which were
provided by William F. "Bill" Mauffray,
curator of odonata and resident
research associate. To date, those
resources have yielded only 21
specimens of A. vivida collected in
New Mexico between 1908 and 2024
and considered to be correctly
identiÞed. The suggestion is that the
species is or was rare and local south
of Interstate 40 and east of the Sangre
de Cristo Mountains, where A.
funebris is known to occur.
The paucity of records of A. vivida
from the southern half of the state
exists despite cumulatively extensive
collecting by many of the leading
odonatologists of the last 50 years;
John C. Abbott, James E. Barr, R.
Duncan Cuyler, Jerrel J. Daigle, Sidney
W. Dunkle, Oliver and Carol Flint,
Rosser W. Garrison, Paul D. Harwood,
William F. Mauffray, John Michalski,
Dennis R. Paulson, Fred C. Sibley, and
others have worked in southern New
Mexico, but apparently
__________________
*Links to other records in these series:
OC#2962419
OC#2962420
OC#2962365
OC#2962366
OC#2962367
OC#2962373
OC#2962374
none have documented A. vivida in
the southern part of the state.
Given the likely distribution of A.
vivida, there were few surprises until I
received photos of two specimens
(see following page) that came in
response to one of my requests from
Bill Mauffray at FSCA: A. vivida was
collected in Grant and Sierra Counties
by noted lepidopterist Clifford D.
Ferris in 1978. These appear to be the
southernmost conÞrmed records of
the species in the state, possibly by as
much as 150 miles.
I was initially tripped up by details on
the specimen cards. The Grant County
specimen was said to be from Gallinas
Canyon in the Gila National Forest, but
the coordinates were for a location
with the same name in Socorro
County. The specimen from Sierra
County was said to be from an
unspeciÞed milepost along New
Mexico State Road 90, which ends
about 30 miles from that county.
Clifford D. Ferris, professor emeritus,
College of Engineering, University of
Wyoming, wrote the foundational
work on butterßies of Grant County
(Ferris 1976) based on Þeld collecting
starting in 1965. He has collected
primarily in Grant County, but also in
Catron, northern Hidalgo, Luna, and
western Sierra Counties. His "primary
forest collecting sites" include the
Black Range east of Silver City. His
speciÞc collecting sites include many
locations in Grant County, among
them Gallinas Canyon in the Black
Range; and two locations in Sierra
County: Emory Pass and Kingston
(Ferris 1976: 38Ð40).
I located Ferris through my lepidopterist friend Steve Cary and sent him
Bill Mauffray's photos of the two
specimens with some questions. His
response explained how he ventured
outside the realm of lepidoptera and
Þlled in the gaps on the Sierra County
specimen's card:
ÒFor some years, Howard Weems
(now deceased) at FSCA (DPI)
recruited a network of volunteers
around the country to collect
insects. He supplied pins, vials,
specimen boxes, etc. I was one of
the volunteers. I did not retain any
of the non-Lepidoptera specimens
Ñ all were sent to Weems. ThatÕs
how the Argia specimens wound up
there.
86
I checked my 1978 Þeld log book.
The only Sierra Co. record that I
have is for MP 95 SR 90, 3 July,
1978. I did not go to New Mexico
in April. Some years ago, the NM
Hwy. dept. changed the route
number to 152.
In 1978, the western terminus of New
Mexico State Road 90 was at US 70
north of Lordsburg. It went north to
the junction with US 180 in Silver City
(where it ends today). From the 180
junction the route headed east 7.5
miles to Santa Clara, then over the
Black Range and through Kingston to
Interstate 25 at Caballo (this is the
section now known as NM-152). On
NM 152 today, milepost 40 is at
Kingston Campground (a USFS site), at
the east end of the town of Kingston.
In 1978 that was milepost 90 on SR 90
Ñ Þve miles west of Ferris's location
for the specimen of A. vivida.
The campground had become of
interest to me, and I emailed Ferris
again asking, "When you collected in/
near Kingston, do you recall if you
collected only in the campground
area, or if you also collected along
Middle Percha Creek west and east of
the campground?" His reply was, "It
would not have been at the
campground...I parked just off the
highway and collected along the
creek area" (emphasis mine).
On 3 August 1995, Bill Mauffray
collected 41 specimens of A. funebris
at the campground, but no specimen
of A. vivida. His description of the
location is "New Mexico, Sierra
County, Kingston, E on SR-90,
Kingston Rec Area, Middle Percha
Creek, seepages, small pond"
(emphasis mine). Most of the
specimens are at FSCA today, but a
few were deposited in other institutions, including USNM. Mauffray
conÞrmed that the specimens still at
FSCA are all funebris (pers. comm., 4
Nov. 2025), and Rosser Garrison
concurred with that identiÞcation
based on his own examination in
2022 (pers. comm., 11 Nov. 2025).
A sizable seep is still present at the
campground, though a pond no
longer exists (Bob Barnes, pers.
comm., 31 Oct. 2025). So although
the records were separated by 17
years, it is reasonable to surmise that
