ENDANGERED SPECIES ACT PROFILE

PROTECTION STATUS: Endangered

YEAR PLACED ON LIST: 1997

CRITICAL HABITAT: Approximately 171,605 acres in California’s Riverside and San Diego counties designated in 2002

RECOVERY PLAN: 2003

RANGE: Eight areas in southwestern Riverside and southern San Diego counties, and four areas in Baja California, Mexico

THREATS: Elimination, fragmentation, and degradation of habitat caused by urban and suburban development, increases in fire frequencies, pesticide spraying, unauthorized trash dumping, exotic plants, impacts from off-road vehicles, and overcollection; on national forest lands, displacement of larval host plants and adult nectar sources, the spread of invasive plants, livestock grazing, predation by exotic invertebrates, off-road vehicle activity, and fire-management practices

POPULATION TREND: Formerly one of the most common butterflies in southern California, the Quino checkerspot now inhabits only eight areas in southwestern Riverside and southern San Diego counties and four in Baja. Of these, all but three populations contained fewer than five individual butterflies in 2000.