Arctic Skipper
Carterocephalus palaemon mandan
Distribution 2
occurs (regularly, as a native taxon) in multiple nations
Habitat 3
Comments: Glades, along roadsides, swampy places and streamside grassy openings in cool northern forests; sometimes in bogs or fens.
Migration 4
Non-Migrant: No. All populations of this species make significant seasonal migrations.
Locally Migrant: No. No populations of this species make local extended movements (generally less than 200 km) at particular times of the year (e.g., to breeding or wintering grounds, to hibernation sites).
Locally Migrant: No. No populations of this species make annual migrations of over 200 km.
National nature serve conservation status 5
Canada
Rounded National Status Rank: N5 - SecureUnited States
Rounded National Status Rank: N5 - SecureTaxonomy 6
Comments: Previous works have placed all North American Carterocephalus palaemon subspecies under the synonymy of C. p. mandan (e.g. Miller and Brown 1981; Howe 1975; Ferris and Brown 1981; and Hodges 1983). Examination by Mattoon and Tilden (1998) found that mandan, skada, and mesapano were distinct and thereby raised to subspecific status. This was adopted by Pelham (2008).
Pohl et al. (2010) treat the taxon mandan as a species distinct from the boreo-montane taxon palaemon on the basis of "genetic differences (in the cox1 gene), phenotypic differences, and occurrences of strict sympatry observed by BCS and C. Guppy, in AB and BC respectively, and also on the presence of sympatric specimens in the CNC." We will continue to follow Pelham (2008) in this database and treat mandan as a subspecies of C. palaemon.
Pohl et al. (2010) also "tentatively maintain the western cordilleran taxon as the subspecies mackenziei Wyatt of the presumed Holarctic species C. palaemon on the basis of superficial similarity and because nothing has been published to establish it as a junior subjective synonym of the subspecies skada (Edwards), but this arrangement is in need of reassessment. The limited molecular data given in Joyce and Pullin (2004) suggest that European and North American palaemon are distinct from one another, but the situation in Siberia has not been assessed."
Sources and Credits
- (c) Denis Doucet, some rights reserved (CC BY-NC), uploaded by Denis Doucet
- (c) NatureServe, some rights reserved (CC BY-NC), http://eol.org/data_objects/28797857
- (c) NatureServe, some rights reserved (CC BY-NC), http://eol.org/data_objects/28797859
- (c) NatureServe, some rights reserved (CC BY-NC), http://eol.org/data_objects/28797858
- (c) NatureServe, some rights reserved (CC BY-NC), http://eol.org/data_objects/28797854
- (c) NatureServe, some rights reserved (CC BY-NC), http://eol.org/data_objects/28797852
