Recovery and Maintenance of Self-sustaining Populations of the Endangered Mottled Duskywing

斑点黄翼是加拿大的一种濒危蝴蝶，仅限于安大略省西南部和马尼托巴省东南部。该物种与加拿大一些最稀有的生态系统有关，如橡树稀树大草原、橡树和松林、高草草原和阿尔瓦斯草原，在那里其幼虫寄主(Ceanothus spp.)发生。它已经从加拿大历史上被占领的大部分地点消失，并且由于栖息地丧失、碎片化和管理不善，整个北美正在减少。尽管斑驳的黄翼在北美的大部分地区都处于濒危状态，但关于该物种的已发表研究很少，美国或加拿大也没有任何努力恢复濒危种群的努力。这个为期五年的项目的目标是进行研究，旨在扭转斑驳黄翼的衰落，并建立安大略省第一个重新引入蝴蝶的地方。由来自圭尔夫大学、西部大学、温尼伯大学、剑桥蝴蝶音乐学院、加拿大自然保护协会、加拿大野生动物保护公司、自然资源解决方案公司、奥尔德维尔黑橡树草原和安大略省公园的一个合作的跨学科团队领导的这一研究伙伴关系将为加拿大各地的蝴蝶保护工作铺平道路，并为这种濒危物种在加拿大东部和美国东北部实施尖端恢复努力铺平道路。要实现恢复斑驳黄翼可持续种群的项目目标，需要三个关键组成部分：1)了解现有亚种群的人口统计学；2)确定现有亚种群的遗传多样性；3)建立成功的圈养方案。为了处理这些组成部分，该项目建立在研究小组和伙伴组织的成熟专业知识的基础上。加拿大将从这项研究中受益，因为它将支持当地来源的模式，以保护和恢复濒危昆虫物种，并将减少未来恢复计划的成本，从而产生显著的长期经济效益。

The Mottled Duskywing is an endangered butterfly in Canada that is restricted to southwestern Ontario and southeastern Manitoba. This species is associated with some of the rarest ecosystems in Canada, such as oak savannas, oak and pine woodlands, tallgrass prairies, and alvars with early successional habitat where its larval host plant (Ceanothus spp.) occurs. It has been lost from the majority of historically occupied locations in Canada and is declining throughout North America due to habitat loss, fragmentation, and poor management. Although the Mottled Duskywing is imperiled throughout most of its North American range, very little published research exists on the species, and no efforts to recover imperiled populations have occurred anywhere in the US or Canada. The goal of this five-year project is to conduct research aimed at reversing the decline of Mottled Duskywing and establish Ontario's first butterfly reintroduction. Led by a collaborative, interdisciplinary team from the University of Guelph, Western University, University of Winnipeg, Cambridge Butterfly Conservatory, Nature Conservancy of Canada, Wildlife Preservation Canada, Natural Resource Solutions Inc., Alderville Black Oak Savanna, and Ontario Parks, this research partnership will pave the way for butterfly conservation efforts throughout Canada and, for this endangered species, to implement leading-edge recovery efforts throughout eastern Canada and the northeastern United States. There are three critical components needed to achieve the project goal of recovering sustainable populations of the Mottled Duskywing: 1) an understanding of the demography of existing subpopulations, 2) identification of the genetic diversity of existing subpopulations, and 3) establishment of a successful captive rearing program. To address these components, the project builds on the well-established expertise of the research team and partner organizations. Canada will benefit from this research because it will support a locally-sourced model for the conservation and recovery planning of an insect species at risk and it will mitigate future costs of recovery programs, resulting in significant long-term economic benefits.