Table Of ContentVolume 62, Number3 171
JournaloftheLepidopterists’Society
62(3),2008,171-173
THE HOLY GRAIL OF NEW MEXICO LEPIDOPTERA: SACRAMENTO MOUNTAINS SPEYERIA
NOKOMIS (W. H. EDWARDS)(NYMPHALIDAE)
Additionalkeywords: extirpatedspecies,OteroCo,PaulGrey,oraltradition
How long does oral tradition persist reliably? I thel860s and 1870s. This siteis nowsodisturbedthatit
personally am inclined to question anything olderthan is impossibletotellpreciselywhere a S. nokomis colony
100 years in the absence of contemporary onceexisted, as all the groundwaterhas beentappedfor
documentation. To think otherwise endorses claims of human follies, ranging from “taming" wild Indians to
livingpeople in non-literate cultures to be 130 years or taming tuberculosis. The United States established
more of age. Even in America, cults have sprung up Fort Stanton, Lincoln County, in 1855 (Julyan 1996).
that deny the lunar landings and the 1lolocaust-in the The other record is from Bent in Otero County on
absence ol contemporarywritten records, these denials the dramatic 3000-foot western escarpment of the
would become almost impossible to refute by 2060 or Sacramento Alts. Apparently a now-capped
2070. undergroundstream once flowedout oftheescarpment
Let me now examine the case for the existence at here in a scenario reminiscent of the well-known
some time, past orpresent, ofSpeyeria nokomis (W. PI. Sierran Round Valley home of the Speyeria nokomis
Edwards) at a site separated from all other S. nokomis apacheana (Skinner) colony in Inyo County, California.
by 200 miles, in the Sacramento Mountains ofLincoln The Bent area was slightly more recently settled than
—
and Otero Counties of New Mexico. Such a colony Fort Stanton, probably around 1870 it was likely
would connect the evolution ofthe northeast Mexican named after the family of Governor Bent, the first
S. nokomis wenona dos Passos & Grey to the American governor of New Mexico, who was
mainstream ofthe species. However, assassinated in 1847. Bent is sort of a suburb of
1. No living person has ever seen a living Tularosa, the oldest European outpost in the Tularosa
specimen. Valley. Specifically, Julyan (1996) states, “In 1862
2. No living person has ever seen a museum Hispanic settlers arrivedat the edge ofthe marshyland
specimen. where Tularosa Creek fans out and loses itself among
3. No living person knows who took or saw the reeds and marsh grass about a mile from the mouth of
specimens. TularosaCanyon.” Itis highlyprobablethatthis marshy
4. No living person has ever seen a first-person area was once the aboriginal home ofthe Sacramento
written recordofacapture or sighting. Alts. Speyeria nokomis and, as the water was tapped,
,
5. I know of no pre-1945 (i.e., contemporary) the butterfly retreated up Tularosa Canyon, making a
written third-person record ofa capture or sighting. (I last stand at Bent.
am disregarding the report of three males from the Another Lepidopteran also dependent on a copious
junction of Hubble and Wills Canyons, near Weed, desert water supply, Papaipema dribi (Barnes &
Otero Co., in 1973, which I am virtually positive is Benjamin), was also known from a similar site at High
bogus). Rolls, about 20 miles south of Bent, but now is
Within my lifetime, the credibility ofthis entity has presumablyalso extirpated (Barnes & Benjamin 1926).
shifted from the realm of quantifiable doubt to the (J.R. Wiker, caretaker of the Moth Photographers’
realm ofmyth/legend, where myth/legend is defined to Papaipema section, has informed me that no P. dribi
be an event devoid ofeven third-person contemporary have been taken anywhere since the type series (one
documentation. In fact, it isonlyduetothediligenceof pair), which is housed at the United States National
Steve Cary (Cary 2003) that I even know ofa collector Museum (Wiker pers. comm.). High Rolls, in Fresnal
whocouldhave beenin thispartoftheworldatanearly Canyon, differs from Bentinbeingabout midwaydown
enough date to have taken the Sacramento Mts. S. the Sacramento West Escarpment instead of near its
nokomis. base. Both Tularosa and Fresnal Canyon drain intothe
There are, however, two historical records from the closed Tularosa Basin, which includes White Sands
Sacramento Mts. that I personallyaccept (Toliveret al. National Monument and Missile Range.
2001). One is from Fort Stanton, site ofthe infamous I, thus, believe the Speyeria population in question
incarceration of our Apache and Navajo people in was observed and extinguished between 1855 and!900,
172 Journalofthe Lepidopterists’ Society
and most likelybetween 1885 and 1900. matter whom I have known personally (and to add my
As alluded to above, Cary had determined that it own experiences).
would have been physically possible lor the early New It is also myobjective to place mypersonal intuition
Mexican collector W. Howard to have been at the andexperiencein apositionthatobstructs applicationof
J.
above sites before 1890 without appealing to time the 100-year rule about oral tradition to the validity of
travel. I am not stating that the Spei/eria records are these old records. This note is intended to undermine
due to Howard, or tha—t there is any evidence Howard Objection 3 in this case-I think Paul Greyprobablydid
ever visited either site I merely point out that we do knowsomeonewho sawthe genuine article.
not need to add a sixth problem to the above list. We
Acknowledgements
can, at least, saythatsomeonewith abutterflynetcould
have been in the Sacramento Mts. at the time The listofpersonstouchedbythis enigmais unparalleledin
sdeommaenudnekdn.owMnotr—heiorvdepra,rtHy—owpaorssdibmlayyashoalvdieerssptoakteinonetdo JwthohehonaonRfnaatwlhlseinobsfe,stthT.eofsDut.su:Ad.IyaoCcfokconkueorrwelLleeldp,gideF.oFpMtr.eerdaB-Rriiotnwdnrg,eea.HdsaMrilrikykeeCTaloelwinhvcoeh’r,s,
at Fort Stanton and encouraged him to write home Otto Poling, Paul Opler, Henry Viereek, Paul Grey, Cyril dos
Passos, Paul Ehrlich, Steve Cary, Chuck Bridges, joanna Mc-
asboomuet tchheanbcuteterHfelniersyorVieevreenektoccoautlcdh shoamvee.bTeheenrethies Caanfofnreyym,ouWs.sJo.uTrcoew.nsend, Prof. Snow, W. [. Holland, and one
—
primary source of the Bent records he is known to
Literature Cited
have collected at High Rolls at least as earlv as 1902
(Caryand Holland 1992). Barnes,W. &F.H. Benjamin. 1926. TwonewwesternPhalaenidae.
I do think that S. nokomis was gone, at least from Cary,PSa.n|.Pa2ci0f0i2c.EWnti.ns2:lo1w11-1H1o2w.ard:pioneerNewMexiconaturalist.
Bent, by 1900, because Bent is not that far from Las Lep. Soc.56:49-52.J.
Cruces, where a world-class naturalist, T. D. A. J..&R. Holland. 1992. NewMexicobutterflies:checklist,distri-
butionandobservation. Res. Lep. 31(1-2):57-82.
Cockerell, then resided (Weber 1976). Cockerell Cockerell,T.D.A. 1909. NoJt.esonbutterflies. Ent. Record21:186.
described two varieties of S. nokomis from northern Cockerell,W.P.&T.D.A.Cockerell. 1900. AnewvarietyofArg-
New Mexico that decade, and it seems unlikely that DOS iPjansnsiossn,itCo.cFr.is.&ELn.tP.GNreewys.111:96472.2.SystematiccatalogofSpeijeria
anythingthis spectacularwouldhave totallyescapedhis (Lepidoptera, Nymphalidae)with designation oftypes andfixa-
purview (Cockerell & Cockerell 1900; Cockerell 1909). tionoftypelocalities. American Museum Novitiates 1370.
By 1900, reports of S. nokomis were even being Holland,W.|. 1900. [descriptionofSpeijerianokomiscoerulescens
published from the Sierra Madre in Chihuahua Julya(nH,olRl.and1)9]9.6.EnTth.eNPelwacse1N1a:3m3e2s-3o3f3.NewMexico. Albuquerque.
(Holland 1900). Plato. 355 BC. Timalos & Kritias, lecturesbySocrates. Transcribed
invAotlvtehmiesntpwoiintth,thi1s enneiegdma.toInexJpullyai1n965m,yjusptebresfoonrael Tolivtaeenrrdf,lideMiss.tEir.ni,bNuRte.ewdHobMylelxPlaianctood.(&ALteShp.eJin.dsoC.patreyr.a:20H0e1s.peDriisotirdiebuatiaonndofPaBpuitl--
I relocated from Boston to Albuquerque, I spent a ionoidea). ThirdEdition. Albuquerque.
weekend with Paul Grey, co-author of the landmark Weber, W.A. 1976. Theodore D.A. Cockerell, Letters from West
Speijeria revision (dos Passos & Grey 1947) reducing Cliff,Colorado, 1887-1889. Boulder.
the species number ofAmerican Spei/eria from 109 to
13. Both Sacramento Mts. reports forSpeijeria nokomis Postscript
that I consider credible reached me orally from Paul After this article had been submitted, I tried a rather
Grey; he told me, in person, ol the old records from unlikelyfinal attack on the Sacramento Mountains mys-
Bent and Fort Stanton. He suggested I try to confirm AterMy.NHI knew that Paul Greys Speijeria collection at the
them. In 1965, I did not knowthis was goingto lead to had always been separAatMelNyHmaintained—and not
integrated into the rest ofthe holdings largely
the ultimate New Mexican butterflymystery. due to its unique and pivotal role in the historyofparsi-
In summary, the historical reality connecting us to a monious taxonomy. Consequently, I wrote there andex-
Sacramento Mts. Speijeria nokomis is less than that plicitlyaskedthecurrentcuratortosearchthe Paul Grey
connecting us to the Lost Continent of Atlantis. In collection forthe HolyGrail. In reply, I receivedthe as-
tonishing news that two specimens hadbeen discovered
Plato's writings, there is at least a quasi-contemporary as a resultofmy inquiry. As I hadpredicted, theywere
third-person mention of Atlantis (see the dialogues taken in Bent, but considerably more recently than my
Timalos and Kritias (Plato 355 BC)), so only the first guess of 1900 for the extinction of the population.
four of the five above problems lie between us and Specifically, two males turned up, one bearing the label
Atlantis. On the other hand, dos Passos & Grey’s “tNheeowthMeerxibecaor.iOntgerthoeCloa.b,evlie“.BeBnetn,t,OetxerEohrCloi.c,hNCoelwl.”Meaxn.d
revision does not even mention the Sacramento
nokomis. My contribution here is to evaluate the AofugL.. P1.2,GrEexy.”C.olAll.lEthhrrleiechl”abpellussttohmeeadadpiptieoanraltolabbeelin“CPoalull,
credibilityandthejudgmentofthethree scholarsin this Grey’s hand. Both are Speijeria nokomis nokomis. To
Volume 62, Number 3 173
AMNH
Suzanne Rah Green, docent, I owe a debt be- atwhichtohavecollectedthematerial, donatedittoPaul
yond measure, as it was she who actually located the Grey, and have had it redonated to the AMNH). I con-
specimens. tacted Paul Ehrlich and he reports having no knowledge
Notwishingtobeovershadowed, thisdiscoverycaused ofthe material. There is no year ofcollection noted on
CMNH
the peopletodiveintocabinets unexploredsince the Ehrlich specimens. Photos of both sexes of this
the demise ofthe .400 batter, wherefrom they surfaced population are attached without comment (Fig. 1) -
with twospecimenslabeled“Mescalero, N. Mex. VIII 13, otherthan ahugethanksto Ms. Greenand john Rawlins.
1931, W. Huber” and “Exch. A.N.S.P., C.M.Acc.20359.” I amalsogreatlyin debt tooneofmytenants,Wenyun
On oneofthe labels,theVIII isjustVII. I suggestthisis Zuo, a visiting bio-ecology graduate student at the Uni-
probably a misprint, as it is unlikely these treasures versity of New Mexico. Ms. Zuo made the initial per-
would have been taken exactly a month apart. The sec- sonal contact with the Carnegie Museum while visiting
ond label refers to an exchange ofvertebrates for inver- Pittsburgh in Mayof2007. Wendy’spersonalcharmcon-
tebrates that took place between the Carnegie Museum tributedgreatlytoinitiatingthis search on averypositive
and the PhiladelphiaAcademyofSciences around 1940. note. But byfarthe greatest help has come from mylife
These arefemale Speyerianokomis nr nokomis. W. Hu- partner, Martha Romero, whose assistance with living,
berwas head mammalogist at the PhiladelphiaAcademy running a business, and becoming an instant expert on
ofSciences in 1931, and regularly spent summers doing Lepidopteran literature and curation has kept me pro-
fieldworkaroundTularosa, New Mexico. Since the relia- ductive farinto the ravages ofParkinsons disease.
bility of the Ehrlichs, Paul Grey, and W. Huber is ab-
solute, it now appears this greatest of all New Mexico Richard Holland, 1625RomaNE,Albuquerque,
butterfly mysteries is resolved. I have wondered ifthis NM87106;email:[email protected].
Ehrlich collector was the Paul Ehrlich we all know and
love, or rather a relative. (The Paul Greycollection was
transferred to the AMNH in 19—48, when our Paul 2008R.eceivedforpublication6June2007;revisedandaccepted28Mai/
Ehrlich would have been about 15 rather ayoung age
Fig. 1. The Sacramento MountainspopulationofSpeyeria nokomis nokomis, nowpresumablyextinct. Top: male. Bent, Otero
County,NewMexico,ca6000’,Aug. 12,AMNHcollection,ex. PaulGreyColl,ex.Ehrlichcollection. Yearisnotspecified,butPaul
GreydonatedhiscollectiontotheAMNH in 1948,placingaclearminimumageontheinsect. Bottom:female: Mescalero,Tularosa
River, OteroCo, NewMexico,ca7000',July13, 1931,leg.W. Huber,CMNHcollection,exPhiladelphiaAcademyofSciencesCol-
lection. ThereisevidencethefemalemayhavebeentakenAug. 13, 1931.
